Summary of Angus Deaton's The Great Escape

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Health is the first thing I consider when it comes to wellbeing. The girl born in the United States today can expect to live more than 80 years, and this estimate is conservative because it ignores any future reductions in mortality.

#2 Health is not just about being alive and living a long time, but about living in good health. Good health has many dimensions and is difficult to measure than the simple fact of whether or not someone is alive, but there is evidence of improvement over time as well as of differences between rich and poor countries.

#3 There are some rich countries that do not have the highest life expectancies, and they may even be poor in terms of their incomes. People are not at all content with their lives in these countries, and they are well aware of their good fortune.

#4 The world is a large map that shows life expectancy and GDP per capita around the world. The horizontal axis shows GDP per capita of each country while the vertical axis shows life expectancy at birth for men and women taken together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822506404

IRB Media

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Insights on Angus Deaton's The Great Escape

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Health is the first thing I consider when it comes to wellbeing. The girl born in the United States today can expect to live more than 80 years, and this estimate is conservative because it ignores any future reductions in mortality.

#2

Health is not just about being alive and living a long time, but about living in good health. Good health has many dimensions and is difficult to measure than the simple fact of whether or not someone is alive, but there is evidence of improvement over time as well as of differences between rich and poor countries.

#3

There are some rich countries that do not have the highest life expectancies, and they may even be poor in terms of their incomes. People are not at all content with their lives in these countries, and they are well aware of their good fortune.

#4

The world is a large map that shows life expectancy and GDP per capita around the world. The horizontal axis shows GDP per capita of each country while the vertical axis shows life expectancy at birth for men and women taken together.

#5

The graph shows that life expectancy and incomes are positively related, and that people who suffer deprivation in terms of material living standards also suffer from deprivation in terms of health.

#6

There is a relationship between income and life expectancy, but it is not as simple as high income causing better health. In fact, there are many factors that affect how long we live, and it is not always the case that higher incomes lead to longer lives.

#7

The stories of the countries off the curve are as important as those that are on it. Some have been affected by wars, while others are suffering from the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has taken back all or most of the gains in life expectancy achieved since World War II.

#8

There are many countries that do better than expected considering their incomes. The poorest countries manage to have low infant and child mortality rates, while the richest, such as Japan, have low mortality among the middle-aged and elderly.

#9

The curve linking life expectancy and income has not stayed still. In 1960, countries were shaded to distinguish them from countries in 2010. The areas of the circles are proportional to population, but within each year separately, so