Using Genetic Lotteries within Families to Examine the Causal Impact of Poor Health on Academic Achievement

Jason Fletcher and Steven Lehrer

No 15148, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: While there is a well-established, large positive correlation between mental and physical health and education outcomes, establishing a causal link remains a substantial challenge. Building on findings from the biomedical literature, we exploit specific differences in the genetic code between siblings within the same family to estimate the causal impact of several poor health conditions on academic outcomes. We present evidence of large impacts of poor mental health on academic achievement. Further, our estimates suggest that family fixed effects estimators by themselves cannot fully account for the endogeneity of poor health. Finally, our sensitivity analysis suggests that these differences in specific portions of the genetic code have good statistical properties and that our results are robust to reasonable violations of the exclusion restriction assumption.

JEL-codes: C33 I12 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-lab, nep-neu and nep-ure
Note: ED EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Published as “Genetic Lotteries within Families.” (With Steven Lehrer) Journal of Health Economics 2011, 30(4): 647-659

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