Global development experts have long recognized the link between good health, domestic stability, and improvements in income. But less agreement exists on the cause and effect: does better health lead to higher income, or does higher income lead to better health? And what about free trade? Free trade has been shown to increase average wealth, but does it improve public health?

Critics of globalization have long suggested that free trade hurts the poor--that liberalized trade tends to increase average incomes but disproportionately benefits the wealthiest countries at the expense of the poorest. But findings in a recent study conducted by economists Ann Owen and Stephen Wu demonstrate just the opposite. Owen and Wu discovered that international trade in fact lowers rates of infant mortality and promotes higher life expectancies--especially in the poorest countries. These findings are particularly relevant in this U.S. election year, in which many of the presidential candidates are either distancing themselves from the subject of free trade or are openly hostile to it.

At this event, Owen will present the study’s findings. AEI visiting scholar Paul Wolfowitz, former president of the World Bank, and Jeremiah Norris, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, will discuss Owen’s conclusions. AEI’s Roger Bate will moderate.