The Health and Development working group at UCLA is an economics research unit that studies issues related to health and economic development. The group was established with funds from Bob and Marian Ettl to support the research of UCLA faculty in the public health field. Our goal is to understand the economic determinants and consequences of health outcomes in developing and developed countries. We support research on a variety of topics including: how to best prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria; what the role of government in health markets should be; understanding the economic consequences of changes in infant mortality and life expectancy, for example on fertility and savings; understanding the determinants of households’ investment in health; understanding the causes and consequences of health disparities across individuals and countries; and exploring the relationship between poverty and nutritional status. Our unique approach consists in studying these questions using methods and theoretical insights from economics, in combination with detailed knowledge from other relevant disciplines, such as public health, demography, medicine and political science; and collecting original data from developing countries.
The working group will disseminate research on these topics by posting all working papers of members of the group and making them available to the public online free of charge, as well as making all the data collected public. We will meet once a month to discuss ongoing research in our brown bag seminar. Finally funds will be available to support all research related activities on topics related to health and development, including survey design and data collection, data acquisition, travel to developing countries and training of students.
Scholars and students working on these and related topics are invited to participate in the working group.