ch 8 Flashcards
(21 cards)
Health and education are important objectives of development, as reflected in _________________________________________________, and in the core values of economic development
Health and education are important objectives of development, as reflected in Amartya Sen’s capability approach, and in the core values of economic development
These are investments in the same individual
Education and Health
Greater health capital may improve the returns to investments in education
Health is a factor in school attendance
Healthier students learn more effectively
A longer life raises the rate of return to education
Healthier people have lower depreciation of education capital
Greater education capital may improve the returns to investments in health
Public health programs need knowledge learned in school
Basic hygiene and sanitation may be taught in school
Education needed in training of health personnel
Improving Health and Education: Increasing Incomes Is Not Sufficient
— Increases in income often do not lead to substantial increases in investment in children’s education and health
— Significant market failures in education and health require policy action
they tend to have healthier children at any income level
better educated mothers
child labor
Government intervention may be called for
to move to a ‘better’ equilibrium
Sometimes this shift can be self-enforcing,
so active intervention is only needed at first
8.2 Investing in Education and Health: The Human Capital Approach
— Initial investments in health or education lead to a stream of higher future income
— The present discounted value of this stream of future income is compared to the costs of the investment
— Private returns to education are high, and may be higher than social returns, especially at higher educational levels
Child labor is a widespread phenomenon
The problem may be modeled using the?
“multiple equilibria” approach
A household with sufficiently high income would not send its children to work
Luxury Axiom:
Adult and child labor are substitutes (perfect substitutes in this model), in which the quantity of output by a child is a given fraction of that of an adult: QC = γQA, 0 < γ < 1.
Substitution Axiom:
Other approaches to child labor policy
The Chapter 8 Case Study: Get more children into school (as in Millennium Development Goals), e.g. new village schools; and enrollment incentives for parents such as in Progresa/ Oportunidades
Consider child labor an expression of poverty, so emphasize ending poverty generally (a traditional World Bank approach, now modified)
If child labor is inevitable in the short run, regulate it to prevent abuse and provide support services for working children (UNICEF approach)
Ban child labor; or if impossible, ban child labor in its most abusive forms (ILO strategy; “Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention”)
Activist approach: trade sanctions. Concerns: could backfire when children shift to informal sector; and if modern sector growth slows
8.4 The Gender Gap: Discrimination in Education and Health
° Young females receive less education than young males in nearly every low and lower-middle income developing country
° Closing the educational gender gap is important because:
— The social rate of return on women’s education is higher than that of men in developing countries
— Education for women increases productivity, lowers fertility
— Educated mothers have a multiplier impact on future generations
— Education can break the vicious cycle of poverty and inadequate schooling for women
— Good news: Millennium Development Goals on parity being approached, progress in every developing region
Consequences of gender bias in health and education
— Economic incentives and their cultural setting
— “Missing Women” mystery in Asia
Research has concluded that in Asia at least? are missing
100 million women or more are “missing”
The “Missing Women” Crisis
— If gender ratios were closer to normal levels based on biology, in comparison to other regions such as Europe, North America, or Latin America (or for that matter sub-Saharan Africa), that is the minimum number of additional women who would be alive in Asia alone
— Some women are also missing in Africa, but a much smaller proportion
— Reasons include inferior medical care for girls, and gender selective abortion or female infanticide
8.5 Educational Systems and Development
Educational supply and demand: the relationship between employment opportunities and educational demands
Social versus private benefits and costs
Distribution of education
Education, inequality, and poverty
Education, Internal Migration, and the Brain Drain
8.5 Educational Systems and Development (cont’d)
° Distribution of Education
— Lorenz curves for the distribution of education
° Education, Inequality, and Poverty
Disease Burden
— HIV/AIDS
— Malaria
— Parasitic Worms and Other “Neglected Tropical Diseases”
Mexican Program on Education, Health, and
Nutrition (Progresa), Oportunidades Human
Development Program
Some Basic Questions:
What is the Progresa/Oportunidades program and
what does it try to accomplish?
How does it try to do so – what are the key program
features?
Why make transfers conditional? Benefits?
Drawbacks?
Specifically, how does Progresa work to improve
nutrition?
Specifically, how does Progresa work to improve
education?
What were the features of the original evaluation?
8.7 Health, Productivity, and Policy
°Productivity
— Is there a connection with health?
°Health Systems Policy
— Great variability in the performance of health systems at each country’s average income level
