THE NEW HEALTH INCOME

The Health of Nations

If you had to choose betweensome of the technological advancementsof the past 50 years,would youkeep advances in health care (eg,vaccines, medicines, and organreplacement surgery) or non-healthcare gains (eg, television and jetplanes)? If you choose to hang on tothe progress in health care or havedifficulty making up your mind,you're in agreement with Dr.WilliamNordhaus, a Yale economics professorwho has developed a new view ofhealth care economics. According toDr. Nordhaus, the increase in life expectancyover the past century,which is related to improved healthcare, has created "health income"that provides value to the economyequal to the value of consumption ofall other goods and services combined.For the full text of his interestingpaper, ,visit www.econ.yale.edu/~nordhaus/homepage/recent_stuff.html.