Heterogeneous Effects of Education on Health

Abstract:
Education and health have been shown to be strongly associated in many periods and countries and for a wide range of health measures. Nevertheless, the role of education as a determinant of health is still debated. In this paper we investigate the hypothesis that education has heterogeneous effects on health, focusing on heterogeneity across the distribution of health. To overcome the endogeneity of education we exploit a natural experiment, England’s Raising of School Leaving Age Order of 1972 (ROSLA) which increased the minimum school-leaving age from 15 to 16 years. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the increase in educational attainment caused by the ROSLA affected anthropometrics, spirometry and blood pressure 40 years later. Importantly, the effects varied across the distribution of these health outcomes. Taken together our results point to the importance of considering heterogeneity when estimating the impacts of education on health.