疾病与发展：生产率、交换与社会隔离

摘要

This is an analytical and historical study of the social effects of disease and their impact on economic development. I analyze model economies where health spillovers influence aggregate efficiency through worker sorting and (endogenous) social barriers that limit sociality and the extent of the market. I also catalogue historical examples of distance-based rules likely aimed at social segregation by disease via interpersonal, temporal, and spatial separation. Under the maintained assumptions of the model, a development accounting exercise suggests that the aggregate efficiency gains from eliminating disease spillovers or health disparities within developing countries may be of a similar order of magnitude as the proximate income gains from improvements in health.