Yes / Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are currently the leading cause of death worldwide. In this paper, we examine the channels through which economic growth affects NCDs’ epidemiology. Following a production function approach, we develop a basic technique to break up the impact of economic growth on NCDs into three fundamental components: (1) a resource effect; (2) a behaviour effect; and (3) a knowledge effect. We demonstrate that each of these effects can be measured as the product of two elasticities, the output and income elasticity of the three leading factors influencing the frequency of NCDs in any population: health care, healthrelated behaviours and lifestyle, and medical knowledge.

This study deals with the health production function. It analyzes the impact of health care, socioeconomic, lifestyle and environmental factors on the mortality and life expectancy of the population of the Czech Republic. The analysis is made by linear regressions with time series data for the period from 1993 to 2011. Health care is measured by health care expenditures or by non-monetary indicators, the number of doctors and the consumption of pharmaceuticals. The results show that higher health care expenditures increase the mortality and reduce life expectancy. On the other hand higher number of doctors and higher consumption of pharmaceuticals improve the health status of the population. It may indicate inefficiency and corruption in health sector. Important factors that positively influence health are wealth, education and fruit and vegetable consumption, smoking affects health negatively. The results suggest that health care policy should focus not only on effective allocation of health care expenditures but also on lifestyle and socioeconomic status of the population. The limits of this work are short time series which don't allow the use of the lagged explanatory variables.