Estimated Economic Benefits of Reducing Low Birth Weight in Low-Income Countries

• Tác giả: Harold Alderman
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 347.12 Civil procedure and courts
• Thông tin xuất bản: World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 301516
• Chủ đề: 1. MACROECONOMIC STABILITY; 2. MACROECONOMIC STABILIZATION; 3. MARKET PRICES; 4. MILITARY EXPENDITURES; 5. NATIONAL ACCOUNTS

Tóm tắt

The paper reviews the evidence on the link between low birth weight (LBW) and health outcomes and economic productivity. The overall benefits depend both on the economic environment and the manner in which future streams of income are discounted. Thus, the sensitivities of the overall estimates to different discount rates and to different assumptions about each of the component estimates are explored. Under plausible assumptions for low income countries, the economic benefits from reducing LBW are fairly substantial, on the order of magnitude of about 80 per infant moved from the LBW to non LBW category. Varying the assumptions used will affect the total as well as the relative share of the seven categories, but under most assumptions the benefits far exceed the costs of known interventions.