Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages: Causal Evidence from Nonparametric Bounds

Vikesh Amin (), Jere Behrman, Jason Fletcher, Carlos A. Flores (), Alfonso Flores-Lagunes () and Hans-Peter Kohler ()
Additional contact information
Vikesh Amin: Central Michigan University
Carlos A. Flores: California Polytechnic State University
Hans-Peter Kohler: University of Pennsylvania

No 15371, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We revisit the much-investigated relationship between schooling and health, focusing on cognitive abilities at older ages using the Harmonized Cognition Assessment Protocol in the Health & Retirement Study. To address endogeneity concerns, we employ a nonparametric partial identification approach that provides bounds on the population average treatment effect using a monotone instrumental variable together with relatively weak monotonicity assumptions on treatment selection and response. The bounds indicate potentially large effects of increasing schooling from primary to secondary but are also consistent with small and null effects. We find evidence for a causal effect of increasing schooling from secondary to tertiary on cognition. We also replicate findings from the Health & Retirement Study using another sample of older adults from the Midlife in United States Development Study Cognition Project.

Keywords: schooling; cognition; bounds; aging; partial identification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I26 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2022-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-edu, nep-hea and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp15371.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages: Causal Evidence from Nonparametric Bounds (2022)
Working Paper: Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages? Causal Evidence from Nonparametric Bounds (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15371

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().