Citation

Brunello G, Fort M, Schneeweis N, Winter-Ebmer R. Health Econ. 2015; 25(3): 314-336.

Affiliation

University of Padua, Padova, Italy; CESifo, Munich, Germany; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn, Germany; Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA), Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/hec.3141

PMID

25581162

Abstract

We investigate the causal effect of education on health and the part of it that is attributable to health behaviors by distinguishing between short-run and long-run mediating effects: whereas, in the former, only behaviors in the immediate past are taken into account, in the latter, we consider the entire history of behaviors. We use two identification strategies: instrumental variables based on compulsory schooling reforms and a combined aggregation, differencing, and selection on an observables technique to address the endogeneity of both education and behaviors in the health production function. Using panel data for European countries, we find that education has a protective effect for European men and women aged 50+. We find that the mediating effects of health behaviors-measured by smoking, drinking, exercising, and the body mass index-account in the short run for around a quarter and in the long run for around a third of the entire effect of education on health. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Language: en