The health-schooling relationship: evidence from Swedish twins

Petter Lundborg, Anton Nilsson and Dan-Olof Rooth

Journal of Population Economics, 2016, vol. 29, issue 4, No 8, 1215 pages

Abstract: Abstract Health and education are known to be highly correlated, but the mechanisms behind the relationship are not well understood. In particular, there is sparse evidence on whether adolescent health may influence educational attainment. Using a large registry dataset of twins, including comprehensive information on health status at the age of 18 and later educational attainment, we investigate whether health predicts final education within monozygotic (identical) twin pairs. We find no evidence of this and conclude that health in adolescence may not have an influence on the level of schooling. Instead, raw correlations between adolescent health and schooling appear to be driven by genes and twin-pair-specific environmental factors.

Keywords: Twins; Twin-fixed effects; Education; Health; Specific conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I14 I21 I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00148-016-0598-8

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