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The effect of early-life education on later-life mortality

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  • Black, Dan A.
  • Hsu, Yu-Chieh
  • Taylor, Lowell J.

Abstract

Many studies link cross-state variation in compulsory schooling laws to early-life educational attainment, thereby providing a plausible way to investigate the causal impact of education on various lifetime outcomes. We use this strategy to estimate the effect of education on older-age mortality of individuals born in the early twentieth century U.S. Our key innovation is to combine U.S. Census data and the complete Vital Statistics records to form precise mortality estimates by sex, birth cohort, and birth state. In turn we find that virtually all of the variation in these mortality rates is captured by cohort effects and state effects alone, making it impossible to reliably tease out any additional impact due to changing educational attainment induced by state-level changes in compulsory schooling.

Suggested Citation

  • Black, Dan A. & Hsu, Yu-Chieh & Taylor, Lowell J., 2015. "The effect of early-life education on later-life mortality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-9.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:44:y:2015:i:c:p:1-9
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2015.07.007
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    1. Kamalow, Raffael & Siedler, Thomas, 2019. "The Effects of Stepwise Minimum Legal Drinking Age Legislation on Mortality: Evidence from Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 12456, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Mathias Huebener, 2017. "Intergenerational Effects of Education on Risky Health Behaviours and Long-Term Health," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1709, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Hamad, Rita & Elser, Holly & Tran, Duy C. & Rehkopf, David H. & Goodman, Steven N., 2018. "How and why studies disagree about the effects of education on health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies of compulsory schooling laws," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 168-178.
    4. Andrew Halpern-Manners & Jonas Helgertz & John Robert Warren & Evan Roberts, 2020. "The Effects of Education on Mortality: Evidence From Linked U.S. Census and Administrative Mortality Data," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(4), pages 1513-1541, August.
    5. Bautista, María Angélica & González, Felipe & Martinez, Luis R. & Muñoz, Pablo & Prem, Mounu, 2020. "Does Higher Education Reduce Mortality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Chile," SocArXiv 5s2px, Center for Open Science.
    6. Bratti, Massimiliano & Cottini, Elena & Ghinetti, Paolo, 2022. "Education, Health and Health-Related Behaviors: Evidence from Higher Education Expansion," IZA Discussion Papers 15035, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Cummins, Neil, 2022. "The causal effects of education on age at marriage and marital fertility," Economic History Working Papers 115400, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    8. Felipe Gonzalez & Luis R. Martinez & Pablo Munoz & Mounu Prem, 2023. "Higher education and mortality: legacies of an authoritarian college contraction," Working Papers 965, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    9. Ofer Malamud & Andreea Mitrut & Cristian Pop-Eleches, 2023. "The Effect of Education on Mortality and Health: Evidence from a Schooling Expansion in Romania," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(2), pages 561-592.
    10. Beata Gavurova & Samer Khouri & Viliam Kovac & Michaela Ferkova, 2020. "Exploration of Influence of Socioeconomic Determinants on Mortality in the European Union," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-21, June.
    11. Titus J. Galama & Adriana Lleras-Muney & Hans van Kippersluis, 2018. "The Effect of Education on Health and Mortality: A Review of Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Evidence," NBER Working Papers 24225, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Grytten, Jostein & Skau, Irene & Sørensen, Rune, 2020. "Who dies early? Education, mortality and causes of death in Norway," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    13. Adriana Lleras-Muney & Joseph Price & Dahai Yue, 2020. "The Association Between Educational Attainment and Longevity using Individual Level Data from the 1940 Census," NBER Working Papers 27514, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Theodore F. Figinski & Alicia Lloro & Avinash Moorthy, 2022. "Revisiting the Effect of Education on Later Life Health," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2022-007, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Mortality;

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

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