DIW Berlin, Graduate Center, Berlin, Germany.
J Health Econ. 2011 Mar;30(2):340-54. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2011.01.004. Epub 2011 Jan 18.
In this paper we investigate the causal effect of years of schooling on health and health-related behavior in West Germany. We apply an instrumental variables approach using as natural experiments several changes in compulsory schooling laws between 1949 and 1969. These law changes generate exogenous variation in years of schooling both across states and over time. We find evidence for a strong and significant causal effect of years of schooling on long-term illness for men but not for women. Moreover, we provide somewhat weaker evidence of a causal effect of education on the likelihood of having weight problems for both sexes. On the other hand, we find little evidence for a causal effect of education on smoking behavior. Overall, our estimates suggest significant non-monetary returns to education with respect to health outcomes but not necessarily with respect to health-related behavior.
本文旨在研究在西德，受教育年限对健康和健康相关行为的因果效应。我们采用工具变量法，利用 1949 年至 1969 年间几次义务教育法的变化作为自然实验。这些法律变化在各州和不同时期产生了受教育年限的外生变化。我们发现，受教育年限对男性长期疾病有很强且显著的因果影响，但对女性则没有。此外，我们为教育对两性体重问题发生概率的因果效应提供了稍弱的证据。另一方面，我们发现教育对吸烟行为的因果效应的证据很少。总的来说，我们的估计表明，教育对健康结果有显著的非货币回报，但对健康相关行为则不一定。
