American Enterprise Institute’s Roger Bate directs us to an
important new study by economists Ann Owen and Stephen Wu titled
“Is Trade Good for Your Health?” Bate summarizes:  By analysing
a variety of data from 219 countries over 35 years, they
demonstrate that the citizens of economically freer nations are
healthier than those where the economy is more tightly
controlled. They conclude that openness to trade and higher
volumes of trade are robustly associated with reductions in
infant mortality and increases in life expectancy, particularly
among males in developing nations. Interestingly, the effect is
even more marked for the poorest of the poor: a small opening up
of trade in the poorest developing countries gives
disproportionately larger health benefits to that country’s
citizens, than to the citizens of richer nations. In terms of
health, the worst off gain the most from more open trade.