The Relationship Between Education and Adult Mortality in the United States
TL;DR: This article examined whether education has a causal impact on health and found that it has a large and positive correlation between education and health, and that this effect is perhaps larger than has been previously estimated in the literature.
Abstract: Prior research has uncovered a large and positive correlation between education and health. This paper examines whether education has a causal impact on health. I follow synthetic cohorts using successive U.S. censuses to estimate the impact of educational attainment on mortality rates. I use compulsory education laws from 1915 to 1939 as instruments for education. The results suggest that education has a causal impact on mortality, and that this effect is perhaps larger than has been previously estimated in the literature. Copyright 2005, Wiley-Blackwell.
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TL;DR: This paper examined possible explanations for the relationship between education and health behaviors, known as the education gradient, and found that income, health insurance, and family background can account for about 30 percent of the gradient, while knowledge and measures of cognitive ability explain an additional 30 percent.
1,461 citations
TL;DR: The authors presented a new data set for years of schooling across countries for the 1960-2000 period, constructed from the OECD database on edu- cational attainment and from surveys published by UNESCO.
Abstract: We present a new data set for years of schooling across countries for the 1960-2000 period. The series are constructed from the OECD database on edu- cational attainment and from surveys published by UNESCO. Two features that improve the quality of our data with respect to other series, particularly for series in first-differences, are the use of surveys based on uniform classification systems of education over time, and an intensified use of information by age groups. As a result of the improvement in quality, these new series can be used as a direct substitute for Barro and Lee's (2001; Oxford Economic Papers, 3, 541-563) data in empirical research. In standard cross-country growth regressions we find that our series yield significant coefficients for schooling. In panel data estimates our series are also sig- nificant even when the regressions account for the accumulation of physical capital. Moreover, the estimated macro return is consistent with those reported in labour studies. These results differ from the typical findings of the earlier literature and are a consequence of the reduction in measurement error in the series.
1,362 citations
TL;DR: The 1918 influenza pandemic is used as a natural experiment to test the fetal origins hypothesis and indicates that investments in fetal health can increase human capital.
Abstract: This paper uses the 1918 influenza pandemic as a natural experiment for testing the fetal origins hypothesis. The pandemic arrived unexpectedly in the fall of 1918 and had largely subsided by January 1919, generating sharp predictions for long‐term effects. Data from the 1960–80 decennial U.S. Census indicate that cohorts in utero during the pandemic displayed reduced educational attainment, increased rates of physical disability, lower income, lower socioeconomic status, and higher transfer payments compared with other birth cohorts. These results indicate that investments in fetal health can increase human capital.
1,191 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that although health is consistently worse for individuals with few resources and for blacks as compared with whites, the extent of health disparities varies by outcome, time, and geographic location within the United States.
Abstract: Eliminating health disparities is a fundamental, though not always explicit, goal of public health research and practice. There is a burgeoning literature in this area, but a number of unresolved issues remain. These include the definition of what constitutes a disparity, the relationship of different bases of disadvantage, the ability to attribute cause from association, and the establishment of the mechanisms by which social disadvantage affects biological processes that get into the body, resulting in disease. We examine current definitions and empirical research on health disparities, particularly disparities associated with race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, and discuss data structures and analytic strategies that allow causal inference about the health impacts of these and associated factors. We show that although health is consistently worse for individuals with few resources and for blacks as compared with whites, the extent of health disparities varies by outcome, time, and geographic location within the United States. Empirical work also demonstrates the importance of a joint consideration of race/ethnicity and social class. Finally, we discuss potential pathways, including exposure to chronic stress and resulting psychosocial and physiological responses to stress, that serve as mechanisms by which social disadvantage results in health disparities.
1,077 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effect of maternal education on birth outcomes using Vital Statistics Natality data from 1970 to 1999 and found that higher maternal education improves infant health as measured by birth weight and gestational age.
Abstract: We examine the effect of maternal education on birth outcomes using Vital Statistics Natality data from 1970 to 1999. We also assess the importance of four channels through which maternal education may improve birth outcomes: use of prenatal care smoking marriage and fertility. In an effort to account for the endogeneity of education attainment we use data about the availability of colleges in the womans country in her 17th year as an instrument for maternal education. We find that higher maternal education improves infant health as measured by birth weight and gestational age. It also increases the probability that a new mother is married reduces parity increases use of prenatal care and reduces smoking suggesting that may be important pathways for the ultimate effect on health. Our results add to the growing body of literature which suggests that estimates of the returns to education which focus only on increases in wages understate the total return.
888 citations
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01 Jan 1983
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a survey of the use of truncated distributions in the context of unions and wages, and some results on truncated distribution Bibliography Index and references therein.
Abstract: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Discrete regression models 3. Probabilistic-choice models 4. Discriminant analysis 5. Multivariate qualitative variables 6. Censored and truncated regression models 7. Simultaneous-equations models with truncated and censored variables 8. Two-stage estimation methods 9. Models with self-selectivity 10. Disequilibrium models 11. Some applications: unions and wages Appendix: Some results on truncated distributions Bibliography Index.
13,828 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed asymptotic distribution theory for instrumental variable regression when the partial correlation between the instruments and a single included endogenous variable is weak, here modeled as local to zero.
Abstract: This paper develops asymptotic distribution theory for instrumental variable regression when the partial correlation between the instruments and a single included endogenous variable is weak, here modeled as local to zero. Asymptotic representations are provided for various instrumental variable statistics, including the two-stage least squares (TSLS) and limited information maximum- likelihood (LIML) estimators and their t-statistics. The asymptotic distributions are found to provide good approximations to sampling distributions with just 20 observations per instrument. Even in large samples, TSLS can be badly biased, but LIML is, in many cases, approximately median unbiased. The theory suggests concrete quantitative guidelines for applied work. These guidelines help to interpret Angrist and Krueger's (1991) estimates of the returns to education: whereas TSLS estimates with many instruments approach the OLS estimate of 6%, the more reliable LIML and TSLS estimates with fewer instruments fall between 8% and 10%, with a typical confidence interval of (6%, 14%).
5,249 citations
TL;DR: A model of the demand for the commodity "good health" is constructed and it is shown that the shadow price rises with age if the rate of depreciation on the stock of health rises over the life cycle and falls with education if more educated people are more efficient producers of health.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to construct a model of the demand for the commodity "good health." The central proposition of the model is that health can be viewed as a durable capital stock that produces an output of healthy time. It is assumed that individuals inherit an initial stock of health that depreciates with age and can be increased by investment. In this framework, the "shadow price" of health depends on many other variables besides the price of medical care. It is shown that the shadow price rises with age if the rate of depreciation on the stock of health rises over the life cycle and falls with education if more educated people are more efficient producers of health. Of particular importance is the conclusion that, under certain conditions, an increase in the shadow price may simultaneously reduce the quantity of health demanded and increase the quantity of medical care demanded.
4,532 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the use of instruments that explain little of the variation in the endogenous explanatory variables can lead to large inconsistencies in the IV estimates even if only a weak relationship exists between the instruments and the error in the structural equation.
Abstract: We draw attention to two problems associated with the use of instrumental variables (IV), the importance of which for empirical work has not been fully appreciated. First, the use of instruments that explain little of the variation in the endogenous explanatory variables can lead to large inconsistencies in the IV estimates even if only a weak relationship exists between the instruments and the error in the structural equation. Second, in finite samples, IV estimates are biased in the same direction as ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates. The magnitude of the bias of IV estimates approaches that of OLS estimates as the R 2 between the instruments and the endogenous explanatory variable approaches 0. To illustrate these problems, we reexamine the results of a recent paper by Angrist and Krueger, who used large samples from the U.S. Census to estimate wage equations in which quarter of birth is used as an instrument for educational attainment. We find evidence that, despite huge sample sizes, th...
4,219 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that the instrumental variables (IV) estimand can be embedded within the Rubin Causal Model (RCM) and that under some simple and easily interpretable assumptions, the IV estimand is the average causal effect for a subgroup of units, the compliers.
Abstract: We outline a framework for causal inference in settings where assignment to a binary treatment is ignorable, but compliance with the assignment is not perfect so that the receipt of treatment is nonignorable. To address the problems associated with comparing subjects by the ignorable assignment—an “intention-to-treat analysis”—we make use of instrumental variables, which have long been used by economists in the context of regression models with constant treatment effects. We show that the instrumental variables (IV) estimand can be embedded within the Rubin Causal Model (RCM) and that under some simple and easily interpretable assumptions, the IV estimand is the average causal effect for a subgroup of units, the compliers. Without these assumptions, the IV estimand is simply the ratio of intention-to-treat causal estimands with no interpretation as an average causal effect. The advantages of embedding the IV approach in the RCM are that it clarifies the nature of critical assumptions needed for a...
3,978 citations