The Rise of Life Expectancy and Economic Growth in the 20th Century

Abstract

This research documents that the growth rate of life expectancy over the 20th century decreased the growth rate of per capita GDP and the growth rate of population. Exploiting exogenous variation in life expectancy from mid-20th century medical advances (e.g., antibiotics), the analysis establishes that countries with higher levels of mortality from infectious diseases prior to the medical innovations experienced higher growth rates in life expectancy and population size and lower growth rates in per capita GDP in the second half of the 20th century. These findings are robust to the inclusion of initial life expectancy and initial economic conditions.