Does Higher Education Reduce Mortality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

María Angélica Bautista, Felipe González, Luis Martinez (), Pablo Muñoz and Mounu Prem

Working papers from Red Investigadores de Economía

Abstract: We provide new evidence on the causal effect of education on health. Our empirical strategy exploits the reduction in access to college experienced by individuals reaching college age shortly after the 1973 military coup in Chile, which led to a sharp downward kink in enrollment for the affected cohorts. Using data from the vital statistics for the period 1994-2017, we document an upward kink in the age-adjusted yearly mortality rate for these cohorts, a pattern that we also observe in matched individual-level records for hospitalized patients. Leveraging the downward kink in college enrollment, we estimate a negative effect of college on mortality, which is larger for men, but also sizable for women. Affected individuals have worse labor market outcomes, lower income, and are more likely to be enrolled in the public health system. They also report lower consumption of health services, which suggests that economic disadvantage and limited access to care plausibly contribute to the effect of education on health.

Keywords: Higher education; mortality; Chile (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 75
Date: 2021-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Does Higher Education Reduce Mortality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment (2022)
Working Paper: Does Higher Education Reduce Mortality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment (2021)
Working Paper: Does Higher Education Reduce Mortality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Chile (2020)
Working Paper: Does Higher Education Reduce Mortality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Chile (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rie:riecdt:80

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