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Does schooling affect health behavior? Evidence from the educational expansion in Western Germany

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  • Jürges, Hendrik
  • Reinhold, Steffen
  • Salm, Martin

Abstract

During the postwar period German states pursued policies to increase the share of young Germans obtaining a university entrance diploma (Abitur) by building more academic track schools, but the timing of educational expansion differed between states. This creates exogenous variation in the availability of upper secondary schooling, which allows estimating the causal effect of education on health behaviors. Using the number of academic track schools in a state as an instrumental variable for years of schooling, we investigate the causal effect of schooling on health behavior such as smoking and related outcomes such as obesity. We find large and robust negative effects of education on smoking for women. These effects can mostly be attributed to reductions in starting rates rather than increases in quitting rates. We also find large negative effects of education on smoking for men. However, the precision of these is not robust to sample specification changes and results for men should thus be interpreted with caution. We find no causal effect of education on reduced overweight and obesity.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Economics of Education Review.

Volume (Year): 30 (2011)
Issue (Month): 5 (October)
Pages: 862-872

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Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:30:y:2011:i:5:p:862-872

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/econedurev

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Keywords: Education Smoking Obesity;

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References

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  1. Pischke, Jörn-Steffen & Wachter, Till von, 2005. "Zero Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Germany: Evidence and Interpretation," IZA Discussion Papers 1645, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
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  5. Philip Oreopoulos, 2006. "Estimating Average and Local Average Treatment Effects of Education when Compulsory Schooling Laws Really Matter," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 152-175, March.
  6. Arendt, Jacob Nielsen, 2005. "Does education cause better health? A panel data analysis using school reforms for identification," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 149-160, April.
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  8. Lundborg, Petter, 2008. "The Health Returns to Education: What Can We Learn from Twins?," IZA Discussion Papers 3399, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
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  17. Grimard, Franque & Parent, Daniel, 2007. "Education and smoking: Were Vietnam war draft avoiders also more likely to avoid smoking?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 896-926, September.
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  19. Cutler, David M. & Lleras-Muney, Adriana, 2010. "Understanding differences in health behaviors by education," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-28, January.
  20. Albouy, Valerie & Lequien, Laurent, 2009. "Does compulsory education lower mortality?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 155-168, January.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Giorgio Brunello & Daniele Fabbri & Margherita Fort, 2010. "Years of Schooling, Human Capital and the Body Mass Index of European Females," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 262, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  2. Jones, A.M & Etile, F, 2010. "Schooling and smoking among the baby boomers and evaluation of the impact of educational expansion in France," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 10/02, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
  3. Harold E. Cuffe & William T. Harbaugh & Jason M. Lindo & Giancarlo Musto & Glenn R. Waddell, 2011. "Evidence on the Efficacy of School-Based Incentives for Healthy Living," Working Papers halshs-00654850, HAL.
  4. Hendrik Jürges, 2012. "Collateral damage: Educational attainment and labor market outcomes among German war and post-war cohorts," Schumpeter Discussion Papers sdp12003, Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal, University Library.
  5. David M. Cutler & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2012. "Education and Health: Insights from International Comparisons," NBER Working Papers 17738, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Papoutsi, Georgia & Drichoutis, Andreas & Nayga, Rodolfo, 2011. "The causes of childhood obesity: A survey," MPRA Paper 30992, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  7. Daniel Kemptner & Jan Marcus, 2011. "Spillover Effects of Maternal Education on Child's Health and Schooling," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 375, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

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