Re: population sizes for colonising a planet


Damien Sullivan wrote:
> "Constantinople" <constantinopoli@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >What is lengthening lives? Medicine? Or lifestyle (e.g. less wear and
>
> David Friedman's friend Robin Hanson argues that medical spending doesn't have
> much to do with life expectancy.

Interesting. After Googling, I found in this paper by Robin Hanson:

"Showing That You Care: The Evolution of Health Altruism"

which quotes the following study:

"The Productivity of Health Care and Pharmaceuticals: An International
Comparison" by H.E. Frech III and Richard D. Miller,

which can be accessed with Google Scholar. I will quote from the
abstract of the latter:

"Researchers who have analyzed the determinants of health across
geographic units have found certain striking and consistent results.
First, basic public health services, in the form of potable water and
sanitation services, provide the biggest payoffs in decreased mortality
for all age groups. Second, the expansion of health care services does
not improve mortality to anywhere near the extent that public health
infrastructure development does, if at all. Some researchers have even
found positive relationships between some health care inputs and
mortality. The results on income and wealth have been more mixed. In
studies which have analyzed developing countries, researchers have
found that higher incomes are negatively related to mortality. Other
researchers have found exactly the opposite result when they have
limited their samples to rich countries and/or regions thereof. Many
researchers have also found that lifestyle factors such as nutrition,
and cigarette and alcohol consumption, are important determinants of
health."

http://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/uclaph/11001.html

Thanks to you and also to Dave Tomlin and Hal Heydt for your thoughts.

.

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