While the importance of education is widely appreciated as a public policy priority in industrialized countries and cross-country comparative rankings of educational performance typically provoke major national debates, comparably little attention, outside of health, is paid to the impact of child and adolescent health on education. Part of the reason could be the perception that child health is but a by-product of education rather than a factor that could determine educational outcomes. This report casts doubt on this perception by critically examining the evidence on the effect of health on education in industrialized countries.

Based on seemingly under-recognized evidence, our overall finding is that there is reason to believe health does have an impact on education. This finding should serve as a basis for raising the profile of child health in the public policy debate, and by illustrating the potential for mutual gains, it should help stimulate cross-sectoral collaboration between the health and education sectors.

Education and health are known to be highly correlated – that is, more education indicates better health and vice versa – but the actual mechanisms driving this correlation are unknown. The effect of health on education has been well researched in developing countries, as has the effect of education on health in both developing and industrialized countries. Such imbalance could signal lack of attention not only in research but also in the public policy debate. 

While children in developing countries face more serious health challenges than those in industrialized ones, the potentially relevant effect of health on their educations (and perhaps on labour force participation) cannot be ruled out.

The analytical framework we used to guide our research posits a path leading from health behaviours (e.g. smoking) and health conditions (e.g. asthma) to educational attainment (level of education) and educational performance (e.g. grades). We searched literature in the fields of health, socioeconomic research, and education and ultimately narrowed our selected publications to 53, all of them based in countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Based on the evidence reviewed, some of our more important findings are the following.
• Overall child health status positively affects educational performance and attainment. For example, one study found that very good or better health in childhood was linked to a third of a year more in school; another concluded that the probability of sickness significantly affected academic success: sickness before age 21 decreased education on average by 1.4 years.
• The evidence indicates that the negative effect on educational outcomes of smoking or poor nutrition is greater than that of alcohol consumption or drug use.
• Initial research has found a significant positive impact of physical exercise on academic performance.
• Obesity and overweight are associated negatively with educational outcomes.
• Sleeping disorders can hinder academic performance.
• Particularly under-researched, especially considering their growing significance, is the effect of anxiety and depression on educational outcomes.
• Asthma on average has not been shown to affect school performance.
• The preponderance of research was based in the United States of America, but overall this field has grown markedly since 2001, including in Europe.
• From a methodological perspective it is important to note that several papers undertake serious efforts to tackle the challenge of proving causality in the relationship.

/pdf/the-impact-of-health-and-health-behaviours-on-educational-5chvwvjqr4.pdf

The impact of health and health behaviours on educational outcomes in high-income countries: a review of the evidence.

Gangs and group-level processes were once central phenomena for criminological theory and research. By the mid-1970s, however, gang research primarily was displaced by studies of individual behavior using randomized self-report surveys, a shift that also removed groups from the theoretical foreground. In this project, we return to the group level to test competing theoretical claims about delinquent group structure. We use network-based clustering methods to identify 897 friendship groups in two ninth-grade cohorts of 27 Pennsylvania and Iowa schools. We then relate group-level measures of delinquency and drinking to network measures of group size, friendship reciprocity, transitivity, structural cohesion, stability, average popularity, and network centrality. We find significant negative correlations between group delinquency and all of our network measures, suggesting that delinquent groups are less solidary and less central to school networks than nondelinquent groups. Additional analyses, on the one hand, reveal that these correlations are explained primarily by other group characteristics, such as gender composition and socioeconomic status. Drinking behaviors, on the other hand, show net positive associations with most of the network measures, suggesting that drinking groups have a higher status and are more internally cohesive than nondrinking groups. Our findings shed light on a long-standing criminological debate by suggesting that any structural differences between delinquent and nondelinquent groups are likely attributable to other characteristics coincidental with delinquency. In contrast, drinking groups seem to provide peer contexts of greater social capital and cohesion.

/pdf/delinquency-and-the-structure-of-adolescent-peer-groups-3pjdtkhxrs.pdf

Delinquency and the structure of adolescent peer groups

The primary statistical challenge that must be addressed when using cross-sectional data to estimate the consequences of consuming addictive substances is the likely endogeneity of substance use. While economists are in agreement on the need to consider potential endogeneity bias and the value of instrumental variables estimation, the selection of credible instruments is a topic of heated debate in the field. Rather than attempt to resolve this debate, our paper highlights the diversity of judgments about what constitutes appropriate instruments for substance use based on a comprehensive review of the economics literature since 1990. We then offer recommendations related to the selection of reliable instruments in future studies.

/pdf/that-instrument-is-lousy-in-search-of-agreement-when-using-3gscl1pora.pdf

That instrument is lousy! In search of agreement when using instrumental variables estimation in substance use research

Lifetime income patterns and alcohol consumption: investigating the association between long- and short-term income trajectories and drinking.

This article develops and estimates a model of wage determination that isolates the effects of alcohol use on wages as mediated through human capital accumulation. Although generally insignificant, estimation results suggest that moderate alcohol use while in school or working has a positive effect on the returns to education or experience, and therefore on human capital accumulation, but heavier drinking reduces this gain slightly. Based on these results, alcohol use does not appear to adversely affect returns to education or work experience and therefore has no negative effect on the efficiency of education or experience in forming human capital.

/pdf/alcohol-use-human-capital-and-wages-4o25kwiclp.pdf

Alcohol Use, Human Capital, and Wages

A number of theorists assume that drinking has harmful economic effects, but data show that drinking and earnings are positively correlated. We hypothesize that drinking leads to higher earnings by increasing social capital. If drinkers have larger social networks, their earnings should increase. Examining the General Social Survey, we find that self-reported drinkers earn 10-14 percent more than abstainers, which replicates results from other data sets. We then attempt to differentiate between social and nonsocial drinking by comparing the earnings of those who frequent bars at least once per month and those who do not. We find that males who frequent bars at least once per month earn an additional 7 percent on top of the 10 percent drinkers’ premium. These results suggest that social drinking leads to increased social capital.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1674457_code685664.pdf?abstractid=1674457&mirid=1

No Booze? You May Lose: Why Drinkers Earn More Money than Nondrinkers

A number of theorists assume that drinking has harmful economic effects, but data show that drinking and earnings are positively correlated. We hypothesize that drinking leads to higher earnings by increasing social capital. If drinkers have larger social networks, their earnings should increase. Examining the Gen-eral Social Survey, we find that selfreported drinkers earn 1014 percent more than abstainers, which replicates results from other data sets. We then attempt to differentiate between social and nonsocial drinking by comparing the earn-ings of those who frequent bars at least once per month and those who do not. We find that males who frequent bars at least once per month earn an addi-tional 7 percent on top of the 10 percent drinkers’ premium. These results sug-gest that social drinking leads to increased social capital.

Drinkers earn more than non-drinkers, even after controlling for human capital and local labor market conditions. Several mechanisms by which drinking could increase productivity have been proposed but are unconfirmed; the more obvious mechanisms predict the opposite, that drinking can impair productivity. In this paper we reproduce the positive association between drinking and earnings, using data for adults age 27-34 from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979). Since drinking is endogenous in this relationship, we then estimate a reduced-form equation, with alcohol prices (proxied by a new index of excise taxes) replacing the drinking variables. We find strong evidence that the prevalence of full-time work increases with alcohol prices %u2013 suggesting that a reduction in drinking increases the labor supply. We also demonstrate some evidence of a positive association between alcohol prices and the earnings of full-time workers. We conclude that most likely the positive association between drinking and earnings is the result of the fact that ethanol is a normal commodity, the consumption of which increases with income, rather than an elixer that enhances productivity.

/pdf/the-myth-of-the-drinker-s-bonus-yj5xsjk33y.pdf

Bethany L. Peters

Papers

No Booze? You May Lose: Why Drinkers Earn More Money than Nondrinkers

No Booze? You May Lose: Why Drinkers Earn More Money than Nondrinkers

The Myth of the Drinker's Bonus

The Myth of the Drinker's Bonus