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Education, Health and Mortality: Evidence from a Social Experiment

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  • Costas Meghir
  • Mårten Palme
  • Emilia Simeonova

Abstract

We study the effect of a compulsory education reform in Sweden on adult health and mortality. The reform was implemented by municipalities between 1949 and 1962 as a social experiment and implied an extension of compulsory schooling from 7 or 8 years depending on municipality to 9 years nationally. We use detailed individual data on education, hospitalizations, labor force participation and mortality for Swedes born between 1946 and 1957. Individual level data allow us to study the effect of the education reform on three main groups of outcomes: (i) mortality until age 60 for different causes of death; (ii) hospitalization by cause and (iii) exit from the labor force primarily through the disability insurance program. The results show reduced male mortality up to age fifty for those assigned to the reform, but these gains were erased by increased mortality later on. We find similar patterns in the probability of being hospitalized and the average costs of inpatient care. Men who acquired more education due to the reform are less likely to retire early.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 17932.

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Date of creation: Mar 2012
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17932

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References

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  1. David Cutler & Angus Deaton & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2005. "The Determinants of Mortality," Working Papers 235, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
  2. Helena Holmlund, 2008. "A Researchers Guide to the Swedish Compulsory School Reform," CEE Discussion Papers 0087, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
  3. Mårten Palme & Ingemar Svensson, 2004. "Income Security Programs and Retirement in Sweden," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Micro-Estimation, pages 579-642 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Costas Meghir & Mårten Palme, 2004. "Educational reform, ability and family background," IFS Working Papers W04/10, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  5. Damon Clark & Heather Royer, 2010. "The Effect of Education on Adult Health and Mortality: Evidence from Britain," NBER Working Papers 16013, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Cited by:
  1. Lundborg, Petter & Nilsson, Anton & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2012. "Parental Education and Offspring Outcomes: Evidence from the Swedish Compulsory Schooling Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 6570, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  2. Giorgio Brunello & Margherita Fort & Nicole Schneeweis & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2012. "The Causal Effect of Education on Health: What is the Role of Health Behaviors?," ISER Discussion Paper 0836, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
  3. Buckles, Kasey & Malamud, Ofer & Morrill, Melinda Sandler & Wozniak, Abigail, 2012. "The Effect of College Education on Health," IZA Discussion Papers 6659, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Gerdtham, Ulf-G & Lundborg, Petter & Lyttkens, Carl Hampus & Nystedt, Paul, 2012. "Do Socioeconomic Factors Really Explain Income-Related Inequalities in Health? Applying a Twin Design to Standard Decomposition Analysis," Working Papers 2012:21, Lund University, Department of Economics.
  5. Jon H. Fiva & Torbjørn Haegeland & Marte Rønning & Astri Syse, 2013. "Acess to Treatment and Educational Inequalities in Cancer Survival," CESifo Working Paper Series 4137, CESifo Group Munich.
  6. Brunello, Giorgio & Fort, Margherita & Schneeweis, Nicole & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2011. "The Causal Effect of Education on Health," Economics Series 280, Institute for Advanced Studies.

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