Life expectancy rises steeply with income at low levels and flattens at high ones, so most health gains come from other sources in rich countries.
Preston's 1975 curve. Its consequence is that life expectancy gains in rich countries come from technology and behaviour rather than income, while in poor countries income does most of the work.
In practice
- A country moving from $2,000 a head to $6,000 gains a decade of life expectancy; one moving from $40,000 to $44,000 gains months.
- A middle-income country's health spending buys more years than the same sum in a high-income one, which is why aid targeting follows the steep part.
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- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
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- The measured patterns of social life