Health is a direct source of humanwelfare and also an instrument for raising income levels.The authors discuss a number of mechanisms through whichhealth can affect income, focusing on worker productivity,children's education, savings and investment, anddemographic structure. As well as the impact of currentillness, health may have large effects on prospective lifespans and life cycle behavior. Studies suggest there may bea large effect of health and nutrition in uteri, and in thefirst few years of life, on physical and cognitivedevelopment and economic success as an adult. Macroeconomicevidence for an effect on growth is mixed, with evidence ofa large effect in some studies. However, there is apossibility that gains from health may be outweighed by theeffect of increased survival on population growth, until afertility transition occurs. The low cost of some healthinterventions that have large-scale effects on populationhealth makes health investments a promising policy tool forgrowth in developing countries. In addition, higher prioritycould be given to tackling widespread 'neglected'diseases that is, diseases with low mortality burdens thatare not priorities from a pure health perspective, but thatdo have substantial effects on productivity.
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