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Sovereign wealth funds have gained popularity amongst both national and subnational governments. These funds have a useful role even in those countries lacking abundant natural resources, as they can address several significant failures of both private markets and governments. First, well‐structured funds may be able to address chronic under‐saving in the marketplace. Second, they can overcome certain imperfect knowledge and incentive problems found in government. The current record of accomplishment of sovereign wealth funds shows that they are capable of producing strong returns, comparable to those in the private sector. However, these funds pose potential problems that should be analysed and considered.

This paper updates the mortality cost of expenditures, which has relevance to a broad range of policies, including regulations, wars, and COVID-19 restrictions. Because changes in income lead to changes in mortality risk, health investments costing more per life saved than a threshold cost-per-life-saved cutoff level are expected to increase mortality risk. This article discusses the mechanisms driving this relationship and provides recent empirical support. The 2019 cost-per-life-saved cutoff level at which expenditures increase mortality risk has a lower bound of $83.1 million and an upper bound of $133.8 million, with a midpoint of $108.5 million. (JEL D61, I18, J17, K32).