Long-lasting health effects of Soviet education

Joan Costa-Font and Anna Nicińska

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Education systems serve various purposes, including the enhancement of later‐life health, though effects can differ by sociopolitical regime. This paper examines the effect of communist education, which exposed children to a distinct curriculum and ideological content, on later‐life health. We exploit a novel dataset that collects information on compulsory education reforms in several European countries, with different cohorts exposed and unexposed to Soviet communist education. Using a difference‐in‐differences (DiD) design, we show that while the extension of compulsory education improved some relevant measures of health, communist education encompassed an additional health‐enhancing effect. We document that the effect remains robust when using staggered DiD approaches and various robustness tests, and that it is explained by the priority given to physical education in the school curricula, together with an increased likelihood of marriage.

Keywords: communist education; health education gradient; later-life health; physical activity; Europe; Soviet communism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 P36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2026-02-02
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Published in Economica, 2, February, 2026. ISSN: 0013-0427

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