Identifier

etd-11162005-115821

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Economics

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

Inarguably the most important question is about the unequal distribution of income among countries. Development economists have recently turned to health for an answer. This dissertation investigates the e®ect of health on cross-country income. The first essay sheds new light on the impact of AIDS on cross-country income levels. We control for a variety of factors that are potentially related to income as suggested by our empirical model and existing related literature. Using the extended (for human capital) Solow model as our baseline empirical specification, we consider cross-sectional and panel estimation. For the full sample it is shown that AIDS has a negative and significant efect on the level of income in both the cross-sectional, and panel estimations. When we arbitrarily split our full sample into OECD and non-OECD countries, we find that the AIDS coeficient continues to be negative and significant for the non-OECD subsample. The second essay constructs gender-specific human capital inequality measures using the Gini coeffcient. It also considers a new channel through which infant mortality affects economic growth-female human capital inequality. It is inequality in education among women that affects infant mortality and the latter affects economic growth and development. We consider cross-sectional and panel data analysis and use common instruments to correct for endogeneity of infant mortality. Our analysis suggests diverting general education subsidy money directly into the education of the least educated women, especially in less-developed countries.

Date

2005

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Secure the entire work for patent and/or proprietary purposes for a period of one year. Student has submitted appropriate documentation which states: During this period the copyright owner also agrees not to exercise her/his ownership rights, including public use in works, without prior authorization from LSU. At the end of the one year period, either we or LSU may request an automatic extension for one additional year. At the end of the one year secure period (or its extension, if such is requested), the work will be released for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Chris Papageorgiou

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.1889

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