Chapter 1 How Growth Can Undermine Growth: Three Examples

Among the good things that economic progress provides us is access to better health and longevity. The average life span in the advanced countries was of the order of 40 years in 1900; it is well over 70 a little more than a century later. It has also grown in less developed countries; as poor a country as Bangladesh has a life expectancy about 65. In fact it has been argued that inequality among countries in life expectancy is less than that in per capita income.