The transition from stagnation to growth and the associated phenomenon of the great
divergence have been the subject of an intensive research in the growth literature in recent …

This paper investigates the hypothesis that the causal effect of life expectancy on income per
capita growth is non-monotonic. This hypothesis follows from the recent literature on unified …

Analyzing a variety of cross-national and sub-national data, we argue that high adult
mortality reduces economic growth by shortening time horizons. Paying careful attention to …

We provide a unified theory of the transition in income, life expectancy, education, and
population size from a nondeveloped environment to sustained growth. Individuals optimally …

This paper proposes a theory of long-run development based on public infrastructure as the
engine of growth. The government, in addition to investing in infrastructure, spends on …

" That raising income levels alleviates poverty, and that economic growth can be more or
less effective in doing so, is well known and has received renewed attention in the search for …

We provide a new data set on per capita book production as a proxy for advanced literacy
skills, and assess this relative to other measures. While literacy proxies very basic skills …

During the XXth century, life expectancy levels have converged across the world. Yet,
macroeconomic studies, as Acemoglu and Johnson (2007), estimate that improvements in …

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the role of life expectancy for
optimal schooling and lifetime labor supply. The results of a simple prototype Ben‐Porath …

Introduction microorganisms and macrohistory one of the chief blessings of living in the
modern world is supposed to be that the risk of dying from an infectious disease has become …