The International Epidemiological Transition and the Education Gender Gap

Mariko Jasmin Klasing, Mariko J. Klasing and Petros Milionis

VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change from Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association

Abstract: We explore the impact of the international epidemiological transition on educational outcomes of males and females over the second half of the 20th century. We provide strong evidence that the large resulting declines in mortality rates from infectious diseases gave rise to differential life expectancy gains across genders, with females benefiting mostly from them due to their greater responsiveness to vaccination. We also document that these gender differences in life expectancy gains are subsequently reflected in similar differential increases in educational outcomes for males and females. Using an instrumental variables strategy that exploits pre-intervention variation in mortality rates across different infectious diseases we confirm the causal nature of these effects and show that the magnitude of the effects account for a large share of the reduction in the education gender gap that emerged over this period.

JEL-codes: I15 J16 O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-edu, nep-gen, nep-gro and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145771

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