Health Human Capital in Developing Countries: Evidence from Infant Mortality Rates and Adult Heights Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies Harvard School of Public Health

We investigate trends in health human capital using data on infant mortality rates and adult heights for birth cohorts from 1960 to 1985 from 39 developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, despite declining infant mortality rates, adult heights have not risen. We argue that childhood exposure to disease, and nutrition, have remained stagnant in Sub-Saharan Africa and the decline in infant mortality has been due to technological progress in preventing the death of children in poor health rather than improved morbidity. Despite falling infant mortality rates, the health human capital and worker productivity of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa may remain low.