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Secondary school fees and the causal effect of schooling on health behavior

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  • Steffen Reinhold
  • Hendrik Jürges

Abstract

Using German census data, we estimate the causal effect of education on smoking and overweight/obesity using the abolition of secondary school fees as instrumental variable. The West German federal states enacted this reform at different dates after World War II, generating exogenous variation in the access to secondary education. While we find a strong association between schooling and health behaviors using OLS, we do not find support for the notion that education causes better health behavior. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Steffen Reinhold & Hendrik Jürges, 2010. "Secondary school fees and the causal effect of schooling on health behavior," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(8), pages 994-1001, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:19:y:2010:i:8:p:994-1001
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.1530
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    5. Echeverría, Lucía & Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto, 2022. "Active commuting and the health of workers," Nülan. Deposited Documents 3778, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Centro de Documentación.
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    9. Jürges Hendrik, 2014. "Bildungspolitik versus Gesundheitspolitik – Evidenzbasierte Interventionen gegen soziale Ungleichheit in Gesundheit," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 15(3), pages 246-255, October.
    10. 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.
    11. Sandy Tubeuf & Florence Jusot & Damien Bricard, 2012. "Mediating Role Of Education And Lifestyles In The Relationship Between Early‐Life Conditions And Health: Evidence From The 1958 British Cohort," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(S1), pages 129-150, June.
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    13. Annemarie Künn‐Nelen, 2016. "Does Commuting Affect Health?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(8), pages 984-1004, August.
    14. Ren, Yanjun & Zhang, Yanjie & Castro Campos, Bente & Loy, Jens-Peter, 2020. "Unhealthy consumption behaviors and their intergenerational persistence: The role of education," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    15. Jürges, Hendrik, 2013. "Collateral damage: The German food crisis, educational attainment and labor market outcomes of German post-war cohorts," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 286-303.
    16. Zhong, Hai, 2016. "Effects of quantity of education on health: A regression discontinuity design approach based on the Chinese Cultural Revolution," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 62-74.
    17. Daniel Kemptner & Jan Marcus, 2011. "Spillover Effects of Maternal Education on Child's Health and Schooling," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 375, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    18. Cawley, John, 2015. "An economy of scales: A selective review of obesity's economic causes, consequences, and solutions," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 244-268.
    19. Eide, Eric R. & Showalter, Mark H., 2011. "Estimating the relation between health and education: What do we know and what do we need to know?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 778-791, October.
    20. Åsa Ljungvall & Ulf Gerdtham & Ulf Lindblad, 2015. "Misreporting and misclassification: implications for socioeconomic disparities in body-mass index and obesity," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 16(1), pages 5-20, January.
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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

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