RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Long-Run Returns to Education
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 695
OP 721
DO 10.3368/jhr.46.4.695
VO 46
IS 4
A1 Hans van Kippersluis
A1 Owen O’Donnell
A1 Eddy van Doorslaer
YR 2011
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/46/4/695.abstract
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.