eriou and Agiomirgianakis (2001), in a study of the relationship between economic growth and education in Greece, found that GDP and all educational variables used are cointegrated, thus indicating that a positive long-run relationship exists between economic growth and education. They further point out that the higher the level of economic development, the higher the demand for higher education. This could be because as the economy grows and GDP per capita increases, the government and/or people will, on average, have more to spend on education, in terms of increasing the number of people who have access to education at all levels, as well as improving the quality of education by hiring more teachers, a wider access to educational materials, books etc.
Improved technology and infrastructure
As economies continue to experience growth, the amount that is spent on infrastructure such as transportation networks, communication, electricity, gas, water supply as well as various technologies has also increased. In a study of infrastructure and long run economic growth, Canning and Pedroni (1999) reported that they found strong evidence of the influence GDP has on the infrastructure stock in a society. This has in turn led to an improvement in living standards of the populace in general, and has also led to further increases in economic growth (Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 2004; Canning and Pedroni, 1999).
Health
Improvements in living standards due to economic growth have also led to improvements in the health of the population in general, as they have more of things such as food, shelter and clothing than can enable them to live longer. This is because, as Frenk (2004) notes that poverty, through child malnourishment and mortality, has an adverse effect on life expectancy. Education can also have a positive impact on health as well (Todaro and Smith, 2011; Weil, 2013). Preston (1976) as cited in Bhargava et al (2001) stated that economic development is the most important factor determining life expectancy. This positive relationship between health and economic growth was also confirmed in a study by Rivera and Currais (1999) in a study of the relationship between these two variables. They pointed out that the association between a growth in income and health status goes in both directions. Todaro and Smith (2011) report that in 1950, 280 out of every 1000 children in the developing world died before the age of five. However, by 2008, this number fell to 118 per 1000 in low income countries, and 57 out of every 1000 children in middle income countries. Thoa et al (2013) also note that households which have experienced economic growth spent less on health care, but had better quality care and were better off in terms of utilisation of health services, further noting that these results were statistically significant.
Some of the reasons for this are that with increased incomes brought about by economic growth, governments as well as individuals are able to spend more on health in terms of health facilities and infrastructure, improved nutrition and sanitation, research on diseases, innovations in medical technologies etc. According to Frenk (2004, p. 1), "national impact has a direct effect on the development of health sys
