Department of Economics and Finance, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
Demography. 2014 Aug;51(4):1225-49. doi: 10.1007/s13524-014-0311-z.
In this article, we empirically study the role of education attainment on individual body mass index (BMI), eating patterns, and physical activity. We allow for endogeneity of schooling choices for females and males in a mean and quantile instrumental variables framework. We find that completion of lower secondary education has a significant positive impact on reduction of individual BMI, containment of calorie consumption, and promotion of physical activity. Interestingly, these effects are heterogeneous across genders and distributions. In particular, for BMI and calorie expenditure, the effect of education is significant for females and is more pronounced for women with high body mass and low physical activity. On the other hand, the effect of education on eating patterns is significant mainly for males, being more beneficial for men with elevated calorie consumption. We also show that education attainment is likely to foster productive and allocative efficiency of individuals in the context of BMI formation. Given that the literature suggests that education fosters development of cognition, self-control, and a variety of skills and abilities, in our context it is thus likely to promote lifetime preferences and means of individuals, which in turn enable them to achieve better health outcomes. Education also provides exposure to physical education and to school subjects enhancing individual deliberative skills, which are important factors shaping calorie expenditure and intake. Finally, we show that in the presence of strong socioeconomic inequalities in BMI, education is likely to have a pronounced impact on healthy BMI for the disadvantaged groups, represented in our framework by females.
本文实证研究了教育程度对个体体重指数（BMI）、饮食习惯和身体活动的影响。我们在均值和分位数工具变量框架中允许女性和男性的学校选择存在内生性。我们发现，完成中等教育对降低个体 BMI、控制卡路里摄入和促进身体活动有显著的积极影响。有趣的是，这些影响在性别和分布上存在异质性。特别是对于 BMI 和卡路里消耗，教育的影响在女性中是显著的，对于高体重和低身体活动的女性影响更为明显。另一方面，教育对饮食习惯的影响主要在男性中显著，对卡路里摄入较高的男性更为有益。我们还表明，教育程度可能会促进 BMI 形成过程中个体的生产和配置效率。鉴于文献表明教育促进认知、自我控制和各种技能和能力的发展，在我们的背景下，它可能会促进个人的终身偏好和手段，从而使他们能够实现更好的健康结果。教育还提供了接受体育教育和学校科目教育的机会，增强了个人的思考技能，这是塑造卡路里消耗和摄入的重要因素。最后，我们表明，在 BMI 方面存在强烈的社会经济不平等的情况下，教育可能会对女性等弱势群体的健康 BMI 产生显著影响。
