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Schooling, cognitive ability, and health

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Author Info
M. Christopher Auld (University of Calgary)
Nirmal Sidhu (University of Calgary)

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Abstract

A large literature documents a strong correlation between health and educational outcomes. In this paper we investigate the role of cognitive ability in the health–education nexus. Using NLSY data, we show that cognitive ability accounts for roughly one quarter of the association between schooling and health. Both schooling and ability are strongly associated with health at low levels but less related or unrelated at high levels. Estimates treating schooling as endogenous to health suggest that most of the correlation between schooling and health is attributable to unobserved heterogeneity, except possibly at low levels of schooling for individuals with low cognitive ability. An implication is that policies which increase schooling will only increase health to the extent that they increase the education of poorly-educated individuals; subsidies to college education, for example, are unlikely to increase population health.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by EconWPA in its series HEW with number 0406001.

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Length: 41 pages
Date of creation: 06 Jun 2004
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Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwphe:0406001

Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 41
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Related research
Keywords: education; health; intelligence; correlated random coefficient models;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I - Health, Education, and Welfare

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Hansen, Karsten T. & Heckman, James J. & Mullen, Kathleen J., 2003. "The Effect of Schooling and Ability on Achievement Test Scores," IZA Discussion Papers 826, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Lance Lochner & Enrico Moretti, 2001. "The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports," NBER Working Papers 8605, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Newey, Whitney K., 1987. "Efficient estimation of limited dependent variable models with endogenous explanatory variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 231-250, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. McKinley L. Blackburn & David Neumark, 1993. "Are OLS Estimates of the Return to Schooling Biased Downward? Another Look," NBER Working Papers 4259, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Adriana Lleras-Muney & Frank R. Lichtenberg, 2002. "The Effect of Education on Medical Technology Adoption: Are the More Educated More Likely to Use New Drugs," NBER Working Papers 9185, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 1997. "On two stage least squares estimation of the average treatment effect in a random coefficient model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 129-133, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Victor R. Fuchs, 1982. "Time Preference and Health: An Exploratory Study," NBER Working Papers 0539, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Garen, John, 1984. "The Returns to Schooling: A Selectivity Bias Approach with a Continuous Choice Variable," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(5), pages 1199-1218, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Kenkel, D.S., 1988. "Health Behavior, Health Knowledge, And Schooling," Papers 10-88-3, Pennsylvania State - Department of Economics.
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  12. Edward C. Norton & Hua Wang & Chunrong Ai, 2004. "Computing interaction effects and standard errors in logit and probit models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(2), pages 154-167, June. [Downloadable!]
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  15. Michael Baker & Mark Stabile & Catherine Deri, 2001. "What do Self-Reported, Objective, Measures of Health Measure?," NBER Working Papers 8419, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. John Cawley & James Heckman & Edward Vytlacil, 1998. "Understanding the Role of Cognitive Ability in Accounting for the Recent Rise in the Economic Return to Education," NBER Working Papers 6388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Dana Goldman & Darius Lakdawalla, 2001. "Understanding Health Disparities Across Education Groups," NBER Working Papers 8328, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. Michael Grossman, 1973. "The Correlation Between Health and Schooling," NBER Working Papers 0022, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  20. Donald S. Kenkel & Dean R. Lillard & Alan D. Mathios, 2006. "The Roles of High School Completion and GED Receipt in Smoking and Obesity," NBER Working Papers 11990, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  21. Hartog, Joop & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1998. "Health, wealth and happiness: why pursue a higher education?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 245-256, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  22. James Heckman & Edward Vytlacil, 2001. "Identifying The Role Of Cognitive Ability In Explaining The Level Of And Change In The Return To Schooling," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(1), pages 1-12, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Hans van Kippersluis & Owen O'Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer, . "Long Run Returns to Education: Does Schooling Lead to an Extended Old Age?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-037/3, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
  2. Nilsson, William, 2006. "Socioeconomic Status and Sickness Absence - What do twins tell us about causality?," UmeÃ¥ Economic Studies 670, Umeå University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2009. "The Economics and Psychology of Inequality and Human Development," NBER Working Papers 14695, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. James J. Heckman, 2007. "The Economics, Technology and Neuroscience of Human Capability Formation," NBER Working Papers 13195, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. James J. Heckman, 2008. "Schools, Skills, and Synapses," NBER Working Papers 14064, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Andrew M. Jones & Stefanie Schurer, 2007. "How does heterogeneity shape the socioeconomic gradient in health satisfaction?," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 07/05, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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