Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
Library,Documentation and Information Science Division

“A research journal serves that narrow

borderland which separates the known from the unknown”

-P.C.Mahalanobis


Image from Google Jackets

Poverty and life expectancy : the Jamaica paradox / James C. Riley.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2005.Description: xiii, 235 p. : ill., map ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 9780521850476
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 304.6457292 23 R573
Contents:
IIntroduction -- 1. "A singularly blessed island" -- 2. What needs to be explained? -- 3. The situation around 1920 -- 4. Rapid gains in life expectancy, 1920--1950 -- 5. The good years, 1950--1972 -- 6. Against growing odds, 1972--2000 -- Conclusion.
Summary: Poverty and Life Expectancy is a multidisciplinary study that reconstructs Jamaica's rise from low to high life expectancy and explains how that was achieved. Jamaica is one of the small number of countries that have attained a life expectancy nearly matching the rich lands, despite having a much lower level of per capita income. Why this is so is the Jamaica paradox. This book provides an answer, surveying possible explanations of Jamaica's rapid gains in life expectancy. The rich countries could invest large sums in reducing mortality, but Jamaica and other low-income countries had to find inexpensive means of doing so. Jamaica's approach especially emphasized that schoolchildren and their parents master lessons about how to manage disease hazards. This book also argues that low-income countries with high life expectancy, such as Jamaica, provide more realistic models as to how other poor countries where life expectancy remains low can improve survival.
Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

IIntroduction --
1. "A singularly blessed island" --
2. What needs to be explained? --
3. The situation around 1920 --
4. Rapid gains in life expectancy, 1920--1950 --
5. The good years, 1950--1972 --
6. Against growing odds, 1972--2000 --
Conclusion.

Poverty and Life Expectancy is a multidisciplinary study that reconstructs Jamaica's rise from low to high life expectancy and explains how that was achieved. Jamaica is one of the small number of countries that have attained a life expectancy nearly matching the rich lands, despite having a much lower level of per capita income. Why this is so is the Jamaica paradox. This book provides an answer, surveying possible explanations of Jamaica's rapid gains in life expectancy. The rich countries could invest large sums in reducing mortality, but Jamaica and other low-income countries had to find inexpensive means of doing so. Jamaica's approach especially emphasized that schoolchildren and their parents master lessons about how to manage disease hazards. This book also argues that low-income countries with high life expectancy, such as Jamaica, provide more realistic models as to how other poor countries where life expectancy remains low can improve survival.

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.
Library, Documentation and Information Science Division, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B T Road, Kolkata 700108, INDIA
Phone no. 91-33-2575 2100, Fax no. 91-33-2578 1412, ksatpathy@isical.ac.in