Could Easier Access to University Improve Health and Reduce Health Inequalities?

Gawain Heckley, Martin Nordin and Ulf-G. Gerdtham

No 2018:5, Working Papers from Lund University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper estimates the impact of university education on medical care use and its income related inequality. We do this by exploiting an arbitrary university eligibility rule in Sweden combined with regression discontinuity design for the years 2003-2013 for students who graduated 2003-2005. We find a clear jump in university attendance due to university eligibility. This jump coincides with a positive jump in prescriptions for contraceptives for females but also a positive jump in mental health related hospital admissions for males. Analysis of the inequality impact of tertiary eligibility finds no clear impact on medical care use by socioeconomic status of the parents. The results imply that easing access to university for the lower ability student will lead to an increase in contraceptive use without increasing its socioeconomic related inequality. At the same time, the results highlight that universities may need to do more to take care of the mental health of their least able students.

Keywords: Health returns to education; demand for medical care; causes of health inequality; Regression Discontinuity Design; Concentration Index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I14 I26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2018-03-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur and nep-hea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2018_005

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