PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hans van Kippersluis
AU  - Owen O’Donnell
AU  - Eddy van Doorslaer
TI  - Long-Run Returns to Education
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.46.4.695
DP  - 2011 Oct 02
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 695--721
VI  - 46
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/46/4/695.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/46/4/695.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2011 Oct 02; 46
AB  - While there is no doubt that health is strongly correlated with education, whether schooling exerts a causal impact on health is not firmly established. We exploit a Dutch compulsory schooling law to estimate the causal effect of education on mortality. The reform provides a powerful instrument, significantly raising years of schooling, which, in turn, has a significant and robust negative effect on mortality. For men surviving to age 81, an extra year of schooling is estimated to reduce the probability of dying before the age of 89 by almost three percentage points relative to a baseline of 50 percent.