← Search

American Economic Review Vol. 103 No. 6 2013

The Effect of Education on Adult Mortality and Health: Evidence from Britain

Damon Clark1; Heather Royer2

1 Department of Economics, University of California, Irvine, School of Social Sciences, 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697-5100. · 2 Department of Economics, University of California-Santa Barbara, 2127 North Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, Mail Stop 9210.

Abstract

There is a strong, positive, and well-documented correlation between education and health outcomes. In this paper, we attempt to understand to what extent this relationship is causal. Our approach exploits two changes to British compulsory schooling laws that generated sharp across-cohort differences in educational attainment. Using regression discontinuity methods, we find the reforms did not affect health although the reforms impacted educational attainment and wages. Our results suggest caution as to the likely health returns to educational interventions focused on increasing educational attainment among those at risk of dropping out of high school, a target of recent health policy efforts.

DOI
10.1257/aer.103.6.2087
Volume
103
Issue
6
Pages
2087-2120
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite