Education, Health and Mortality: Evidence from a Social Experiment

Costas Meghir, Mårten Palme and Emilia Simeonova (emilia.simeonova@gmail.com)
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Emilia Simeonova: Johns Hopkins University

No 6462, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the effect of a compulsory education reform in Sweden on adult health and mortality. The reform was implemented by municipalities between 1949 and 1962 as a social experiment and implied an extension of compulsory schooling from 7 or 8 years depending on municipality to 9 years nationally. We use detailed individual data on education, hospitalizations, labor force participation and mortality for Swedes born between 1946 and 1957. Individual level data allow us to study the effect of the education reform on three main groups of outcomes: (i) mortality until age 60 for different causes of death; (ii) hospitalization by cause and (iii) exit from the labor force primarily through the disability insurance program. The results show reduced male mortality up to age fifty for those assigned to the reform, but these gains were erased by increased mortality later on. We find similar patterns in the probability of being hospitalized and the average costs of inpatient care. Men who acquired more education due to the reform are less likely to retire early.

Keywords: comprehensive school reforms; compulsory schooling laws; causal effects of education; education reform; returns to schooling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2012-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem, nep-edu, nep-hea, nep-lab and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Published - published in: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2018, 10 (2), 234–256

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Working Paper: Education, Health and Mortality: Evidence from a Social Experiment (2012)
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