Healthier children tend to have better economic pros-pects. They are relatively likely to acquire high levels of education, be employed and command high salaries. There is evidence that certain health problems — particularly those relating to psychological health, such as emotional stability and behavioural conduct — have been on the rise among children in recent decades. So, should we be concerned about childhood health as an economic issue and, if so, what can be done about it?
Before too many economists rush to retrain as doctors, we should take care that we have interpreted the evidence correctly. The fact that healthy children have more successful economic lives as adults does not necessarily mean that good childhood health is actually the cause of this success. The first thing to note is that healthier children might differ from less healthy children in ways other than just their health. For example, the unhealthiest children are relatively likely to come from low-income families. The second thing to note is that these other differences between healthy and unhealthy children could be causing the differences in their later economic success. If this is the case, then a policy response which focuses on improving children’s health would not necessarily result in any improvement in those children’s economic prospects, since it was not their health that was the problem in the first place (although of course there are other reasons why we would want to improve children’s health).
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