Work

Education and Mortality: Evidence from a Social Experiment

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: We examine the effects on mortality and health due to a major Swedish educational reform that increased the years of compulsory schooling. Using the gradual phase-in of the reform between 1949 and 1962 across municipalities, we estimate insignificant effects of the reform on mortality in the affected cohort. From the confidence intervals, we can rule out effects larger than 1–1.4 months of increased life expectancy. We find no significant impacts on mortality for individuals of low socioeconomic status backgrounds, on deaths that are more likely to be affected by behavior, on hospitalizations, and consumption of prescribed drugs. (JEL H52, I12, I21, I28)

Source: American Economic Journal Applied Economics

DOI: 10.1257/app.20150365

Authors: Costas Meghir, Mårten Palme, Emilia Simeonova

Institutions: National Bureau of Economic Research, Yale University, Stockholm University, Johns Hopkins University

Language: English

Topic: Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funder: Institutet för arbetsmarknads- och utbildningspolitisk politisk utvärdering