Venue: The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, 1 Towerview Drive, Durham, NC 27708-0120

 

Presentation

The Effect of Compulsory Schooling on Adult Health and Mortality: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Authors:

Presenter: Heather Royer (Case Western Reserve University)

Discussant: Elizabeth Ty Wilde (Princeton University)

Session: Public Policies, Quasi-Experiments, and Health

Room: Classroom E

When: Monday 1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

In many developed countries, the differences in mortality risks across education groups are striking. However, whether these correlations represent a causal relationship between education and health is a highly-debated question. We examine the relationship between education and mortality and adult health in the United Kingdom, exploiting a major change in compulsory schooling laws, which effectively increased the school-leaving age from 14 to 15 in 1947. While this reform had a substantial impact on educational attainment, the impact of the reform on mortality was negligible. These results question whether increases in educational attainment can lead to reductions in mortality and improvements in health.