 The effect of higher education on Women's obesity and smoking: Evidence from college openings in TurkeyBadi Baltagi, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes () and Haci M. Karatas Economic Modelling, 2023, vol. 123, issue C Abstract: We analyze the effect of higher education on obesity and smoking behavior among women by exploiting the largely exogenous and substantial increase in university openings between 1983 and 2002 throughout Turkey. Using women's province of residence when they make their college decision, we constructed two college accessibility measures to serve as instruments for years of schooling. Growing up in a province with a college increases attained years of schooling by about 0.8 years, and university enrollment by 5 percentage-points (80%). We find that one additional year of schooling reduces obesity by 4 percentage points and increases the probability of smoking by 5–6 percentage points. The contrasting effects of schooling attainment on obesity and smoking behavior suggest that, in a developing country setting, higher education affects health thorough changing the socio-economic environment and health inputs of women. Keywords: Health; Tertiary education; Women; Body mass index; Obesity; Smoking; Turkey (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:123:y:2023:i:c:s0264999323000986 DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2023.106286 Access Statistics for this article Economic Modelling is currently edited by S. Hall and P. Pauly More articles in Economic Modelling from Elsevier |
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