Changes in compulsory schooling and the causal effect of education on health: Evidence from Germany

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the causal effect of years of schooling on health and healthrelated behavior in West Germany. We apply an instrumental variables approach using changes in compulsory schooling laws which took place from 1949 to 1969 as natural experiments. These law changed generate exogenous variation in years of schooling both across states and over time. We find evidence for a strong and significant causal effect of years of schooling on long-term illness for men but not for women. Moreover, we provide evidence of a causal effect of education on the likelihood of having weight problems for both sexes. On the other hand, we find little evidence for a causal effect of education on smoking behavior. Overall, our estimates suggest significant non-monetary returns to education with respect to health and health-related behavior.

The effect of education on fertility: Evidence from a compulsory schooling reform

“…The coefficients are very small, negative and insignificant. Thus, consistent with previous findings, we do not find evidence that the reform affected track choice (see, e.g., Pischke & von Wachter 2008, Kemptner et al 2011, Piopiunik 2011. 20…”

The health knowledge mechanism: evidence on the link between education and health lifestyle in the Philippines

“…In line with the second prediction, various studies report positive education effects on health behaviors [4,10,40,50,61]. For instance, using data on a major schooling information campaign in the Dominican Republic, [36] find that schooling significantly reduces smoking and delays the onset of daily or regular drinking among male students.…”

“…In line with this argument, previous studies have found education to positively influence health-related lifestyles and behaviors, such as smoking [36,38,40,64], drinking [36], or care seeking [53,56]. Despite this evidence, little is known about the actual mechanisms through which education affects behavioral patterns.…”

Do schooling reforms improve long-term health?

“…One counter-example to this is a study of changes in German compulsory schooling laws applied between 1949 and 1969; it finds that additional schooling decreased the risk of long-term illness and disability for men aged between 40 and 70 [7].…”