Education, cognitive ability, and cause-specific mortality: A structural approach

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S Education, Cognitive Ability and Cause-SpecificIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. Education is negatively associated with mortality for most major causes of death. The literature ignores that cause-specific hazard rates are interdependent and that education and mortality both depend on cognitive ability. We analyze the education-mortality gradient at ages 18-63 using Swedish register data. We focus on months lost due to a specific cause of death which solves the interdependence problem, and use a structural model that derives cognitive ability from military conscription IQ scores. We derive the educational gains in months lost and the selection effects for each cause of death, and quantify the selection contribution of observed characteristics and unobserved cognitive ability. In a standard Cox model that controls for observed IQ, primary education was associated with 6 months lost when compared to secondary education. In a structural model that accounts for cognitive ability the difference was 43% larger. In addition, the largest educational gains were achieved for the lowest education group in the reduction of external cause mortality. The educational gains in cardiovascular mortality was small, mainly due to large selection effects. These results suggest that educational differences in cause specific mortality may be biased by conventional Cox regression analyses.JEL Classification: C41, C32, I14, I24

The impact of an unequal distribution of education on inequalities in life expectancy

“…One crucial factor for explaining trends in longevity is education ( Inequalities in Lon, 2017/02 ; Mackenbach et al, 2019 ; Cutler & Lleras-Muney, 2006 ). Education is inversely related to most major causes of death ( Alicandro et al, 2018 ; Bijwaard et al, 2019 ; Nordahl et al, 2014 ) and health care access ( Lazar & Davenport, 2018 ). Improving education provides individuals with a tool that increases their life expectancy both directly and indirectly ( Mirowsky & Ross, 2003 ; Rogers et al, 2000 ).…”

Life expectancy and parental education

“…Based on administrative data, either the highest educational level of parents is considered (Elo, Martikainen, & Myrskylä, 2014;Kröger, Hoffmann, Tarkiainen, & Martikainen, 2018), or only the education of the father (Tarkiainen, Martikainen, Laaksonen, & Aaltonen, 2015). Some studies include parental education in mortality analyses, but do not report their coefficients (Bijwaard, Myrskylä, 4 Tynelius, & Rasmussen, 2017;Bijwaard, Tynelius, & Myrskylä, 2018). If parents' education is not considered separately, the relationship between parental education and life expectancy may be described insufficiently.…”

Life Expectancy and Parental Education

“…Based on administrative data, either the highest educational level of parents is considered (Elo, Martikainen, & Myrskylä, 2014;Kröger, Hoffmann, Tarkiainen, & Martikainen, 2018), or only the education of the father (Tarkiainen, Martikainen, Laaksonen, & Aaltonen, 2015). Some studies include parental education in mortality analyses, but do not report their coefficients (Bijwaard, Myrskylä, Tynelius, & Rasmussen, 2017;Bijwaard, Tynelius, & Myrskylä, 2018). If parents' education is not considered separately, the relationship between parental education and life expectancy may be described insufficiently.…”