Education, Cognition and Health: Evidence from a Social Experiment

Costas Meghir, Mårten Palme and Emilia Simeonova

No 19002, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In this paper we examine how an education policy intervention - the introduction of a comprehensive school in Sweden that increased the number of compulsory years of schooling, affected cognitive and non-cognitive skills and long-term health. We use detailed administrative data combined with survey information to create a data set with background information, child ability and long-term adult outcomes. We show that extra education results in significant gains in skills among children, but the effects on long-term health are overall negligible. However, we demonstrate that the schooling reform had heterogeneous effects across family socio-economic backgrounds and initial skill endowments, with significant improvements in cognition and skills for lower Socio-economic status individuals and lower ability people.

JEL-codes: I12 I14 J48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-04
Note: ED EH LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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Working Paper: Education, Cognition and Health: Evidence from a Social Experiment (2013)
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