Introduction: Why Supply-side Health?

Ian McCarthy | Emory University

Health Improvements

Major improvements in life expectancy (and many other measures of health) across the world

  • Poverty reduction
  • Technology development and innovation
  • Technology diffusion and adoption
  • Access to better services, including health care
R Code
gapminder %>%
  group_by(year) %>%
  summarize(lifeExp = median(lifeExp),
            gdpMed = median(gdpPercap)) %>%
  ggplot(aes(year,lifeExp)) + geom_line(alpha = 1/3) + theme_bw() +
    labs(x = "Year",
         y = "Life Expectancy (years)",
         title = "Median life expectancy across the world")

Health and Wealth

R Code
ggplot(data = gapminder, mapping = aes(x = gdpPercap, y = lifeExp)) + 
  geom_point(size = 1) + theme_bw() + scale_x_continuous(label = comma) +
  labs(x = "GDP Per Capita ($US)",
       y = "Life Expectancy (years)",
       title = "Life expectancy and GDP")
R Code
ggplot(gapminder, aes(gdpPercap, lifeExp, size = pop)) +
  geom_point(alpha = 0.5, show.legend = FALSE) +
  scale_colour_manual(values = country_colors) +
  scale_size(range = c(2, 12)) +
  scale_x_log10() +
  facet_wrap(~continent) +
  labs(title = 'Year: {frame_time}', x = 'Log GDP Per Capita ($US)', y = 'Life Expectancy (years)') +
  transition_time(year) +
  ease_aes('linear') +
  theme_bw()