Health Endowments, Schooling Allocation in the Family, and Longevity: Evidence from US Twins

Peter Savelyev (), Benjamin Ward, Bob Krueger () and Matthew McGue
Additional contact information
Bob Krueger: University of Minnesota
Matthew McGue: University of Minnesota

No 2020-040, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: We analyze data from the Minnesota Twin Registry (MTR), combined with the Socioeconomic Survey of Twins (SST), and new mortality data, and contribute to two bodies of literature. First, we demonstrate a beneficial casual effect of education on health and longevity in contrast to other twin-based studies of the US population, which show little or no effect of education on health. Second, we present evidence that parents compensate for differences in their children's health endowments through education, but find no evidence that parents reinforce differences in skill endowments. We argue that there is a bias towards detecting reinforcement both in this paper and in the literature. Our compensation result for health endowment holds, as it is obtained despite the bias. We account for observed and unobserved confounding factors, sample selection bias, and measurement error in education.

Keywords: skill endowment; intrafamily resource allocation; education; longevity; twin study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I14 I24 J13 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: IP
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Savely ... -allocation_rev4.pdf Fifth version, October 11, 2021 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Health endowments, schooling allocation in the family, and longevity: Evidence from US twins (2022)
Working Paper: Health Endowments, Schooling Allocation in the Family, and Longevity: Evidence from US Twins (2021)
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