Secondary School Fees and the Causal Effect of Schooling on Health Behavior

Steffen Reinhold () and Hendrik Jürges ()
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Hendrik Jürges: Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA), Postal: Amalienstr. 33, D-80799 Munich
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Hendrik Juerges

No 9181, MEA discussion paper series from Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy

Abstract: Using German census data we estimate the causal effect of education on smoking and overweight/obesity using the abolition of secondary school fees as instrumental variable. The West German federal states enacted this reform at different dates after World War II generating exogenous variation in the access to secondary education. While we find a strong association between schooling and health behaviors using OLS, we do not find support for the notion that education causes better health behavior.

Keywords: Education; Health; Health Behaviors; School Fees; Instrumental Variables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-05-06
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: Secondary school fees and the causal effect of schooling on health behavior (2010)
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