While there is a well-established, large positive correlation between mental and physical health and education outcomes, establishing a causal link remains a substantial challenge. Building on findings from the biomedical literature, we exploit specific differences in the genetic code between siblings within the same family to estimate the causal impact of several poor health conditions on academic outcomes. We present evidence of large impacts of poor mental health on academic achievement. Further, our estimates suggest that family fixed effects estimators by themselves cannot fully account for the endogeneity of poor health. Finally, our sensitivity analysis suggests that these differences in specific portions of the genetic code have good statistical properties and that our results are robust to reasonable violations of the exclusion restriction assumption.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
15148.
Length: Date of creation: Jul 2009 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15148
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Find related papers by JEL classification: C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
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