Life expectancy and education: Evidence from the cardiovascular revolution

Casper Hansen and Holger Strulik

No 261, University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics from University of Goettingen, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper exploits the unexpected decline of deaths from cardiovascular diseases since the 1970s as a large positive health shock that affected predominantly old-age mortality; i.e., the fourth stage of the epidemiological transition. Using a differences-in-differences estimation strategy, we find that U.S. states with higher levels of cardiovascular-disease mortality prior the 1970s experienced greater increases in adultlife expectancy and higher education enrollment. Our estimates suggest that the cardiovascular revolution caused an increase in life expectancy of 1.5 years and an increase in education enrollment of 9 percentage points, i.e. 52 percent of the observed increase from 1960 to 2000.

Keywords: adult life expectancy; higher education; cardiovascular diseases; differences-in-differences strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 J24 N30 O10 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-edu, nep-gro, nep-hea and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Life expectancy and education: evidence from the cardiovascular revolution (2017)
Working Paper: Life Expectancy and Education: Evidence from the Cardiovascular Revolution (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:cegedp:261

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