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Human capital and longevity. Evidence from 50,000 twins

Author

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  • Petter Lundborg;
  • Carl Hampus Lyttkens;
  • Paul Nystedt;

Abstract

Why do well-educated people live longer? We use unique and high-quality data on about 50,000 monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twins, born between 1886-1958, to address this question. We demonstrate a positive and statistically signiÂ…cant relation between years of schooling and longevity, which remains when we exploit the twin design. This result is robust to controlling for speciÂ…c within-twin-pair differences in early life factors, such as birth weight and proxies for ability and health in the form of body height, as well as to restricting the sample to monozygotic twins.

Suggested Citation

  • Petter Lundborg; & Carl Hampus Lyttkens; & Paul Nystedt;, 2012. "Human capital and longevity. Evidence from 50,000 twins," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 12/19, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    • Handle: RePEc:yor:hectdg:12/19
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Better educated twins live longer
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2012-10-23 19:10:00

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    2. Michael Grossman, 2015. "The Relationship between Health and Schooling: What's New?," Working Papers 8, City University of New York Graduate Center, Ph.D. Program in Economics.
    3. Lång, Elisabeth & Nystedt, Paul, 2018. "Blowing up money? The earnings penalty of smoking in the 1970s and the 21st century," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 39-52.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    death; longevity; education; endogeneity; stratiÂ…ed partial likelihood; duration analysis; twins;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • C41 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies

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