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Education and health in Europe

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  • Leonardo Becchetti
  • Pierluigi Conzo
  • Fabio Pisani

Abstract

The productive and allocative theories predict that education has positive impact on health: the more educated adopt healthier life styles and use more efficiently health inputs, and this explains why they live longer. We find partial support for these theories with an econometric analysis on a large sample of Europeans aged above 50 documenting a significant and positive correlation among education years, life styles, health outputs and functionalities. We however find confirmation for an anomaly already observed in the United States, namely the more educated are more likely to contract cancer. Our results are robust when controlling for endogeneity and reverse causality in IV estimates with instrumental variables related to quarter of birth and neighbours’ cultural norms.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo Becchetti & Pierluigi Conzo & Fabio Pisani, 2018. "Education and health in Europe," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(12), pages 1362-1377, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:50:y:2018:i:12:p:1362-1377
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2017.1361013
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    2. Szanyi-Nagy, Sára & Vaskövi, Ágnes, 2021. "Hogyan élnek az európai nyugdíjasok? Egyéni szintű különbözőségek vizsgálata SHARE-adatok alapján [European quality of life in retirement. Analysing personal differences through SHARE data]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1336-1363.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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