Author(s): Shonal Rath
This paper focuses on health as a factor determining the effective labour force of an economy. Health promotes the growth of the economy under full employment conditions in the long run. Long-term health issues stagnate the development of a country by undermining economic growth as well as the wellbeing of individuals. However, access to health is often gender biased. Therefore, this paper provides a theoretical framework where the theory of endogenous growth has been used to discuss how the growth rate of an economy is influenced by health factors in the short-run and long run through female labour employment with the increased access to health resources, thus leading to women empowerment. Finally, a panel data regression analysis has been performed to study the correlation among these variables. This shows that health improvement can serve the two-fold purpose of women economic empowerment and overall development of the economy.