Does more schooling improve health outcomes and health related behaviors? Evidence from U.K. twins

Several recent studies using instrumental variables based on changes in compulsory school-leaving age laws have estimated the causal effect of schooling on health outcomes and health-related behaviors in the U.K. Despite using the same identification strategy and similar datasets, no consensus has been reached. We contribute to the literature by providing results for the U.K. using a different research design and a different dataset. Specifically, we estimate the effect of schooling on health outcomes (obesity and physical health) and health-related behaviors (smoking, alcohol consumption and exercise) for women through within-MZ twins estimates using the TwinsUK database. For physical health, alcohol consumption and exercise, the within-MZ twins estimates are uninformative about whether there is a causal effect. However, we find (1) that the significant association between schooling and smoking status is due to unobserved endowments that are correlated with schooling and smoking and (2) there is some indication that more schooling reduces the body mass index for women, even once these unobserved endowments have been controlled for.     

Does money buy higher schooling?: Evidence from secondary school track choice in Germany

The German schooling system selects children into different secondary school tracks already at a very early stage in life. School track choice heavily influences choices and opportunities later in life. It has often been observed that secondary schooling achievements display a strong correlation with parental income. We use sibling fixed effects models and information on a natural experiment in order to analyse whether this correlation is due to a causal effect of income or due to unobservable factors that themselves might be correlated across generations. Our main findings suggest that income has no positive causal effect on school choice and that differences between high- and low-income households are driven by unobserved heterogeneity, e.g. differences in motivation or parenting quality.     

Estimating the relation between health and education: What do we know and what do we need to know?

The empirical link between education and health is firmly established. Numerous studies document that higher levels of education are positively associated with longer life and better health throughout the lifespan.But measuring the causal links between education and health is a more challenging task. Aside from the typical econometric concerns about measurement error, functional form, and sampling properties, measuring the causal impact of education on health is confounded by the likely causal effect of health on education, and vice versa. Concerns about ‘missing’ variables that affect both the accumulation of human capital and the health capital - such as measures of individual discount rates - also make causality difficult to measure.Despite the difficulties, there has been a marked surge over the last decade in the number of empirical studies attempting to estimate the causal links between education and health. This survey reviews recent empirical evidence on the topic. Following the bifurcation in the literature, we split the survey into two pieces. First, we review the evidence of the effect of education on health. The vast majority of work in this area focuses on schooling up through college and its effect on adult health, including longevity. Second, we review the evidence of the effect of health on education, including health shocks in the womb and their effects on educational attainment. Rather than attempting a comprehensive review, our focus is to highlight relatively recent research.     

Does schooling affect health behavior? Evidence from the educational expansion in Western Germany

During the postwar period German states pursued policies to increase the share of young Germans obtaining a university entrance diploma (Abitur) by building more academic track schools, but the timing of educational expansion differed between states. This creates exogenous variation in the availability of upper secondary schooling, which allows estimating the causal effect of education on health behaviors. Using the number of academic track schools in a state as an instrumental variable for years of schooling, we investigate the causal effect of schooling on health behavior such as smoking and related outcomes such as obesity. We find large and robust negative effects of education on smoking for women. These effects can mostly be attributed to reductions in starting rates rather than increases in quitting rates. We also find large negative effects of education on smoking for men. However, the precision of these is not robust to sample specification changes and results for men should thus be interpreted with caution. We find no causal effect of education on reduced overweight and obesity.     

Age versus schooling effects on intelligence development

The effect of formal education, as opposed to chronological age, on intelligence development has suffered from inadequate empirical investigation. Most studies of this issue have relied on natural variation in exposure to school among children of the same age, thus confounding differences in schooling with differences in other intelligence-related variables. This difficulty can be overcome by a quasi-experimental paradigm involving comparison between children who differ in both chronological age and schooling. The present study applies this paradigm to the estimation of the independent effects of age and schooling in grades 5 and 6 on raw scores obtained on a variety of general ability tests. The sample included all students in Jerusalem's Hebrew-language, state-controlled elementary schools. The results unambiguously point to schooling as the major factor underlying the increase of intelligence test scores as a function of age and to the larger effect schooling has on verbal than nonverbal tests. These results contribute to our understanding of the causal model underlying intelligence development and call for reconsideration of the conceptual basis underlying the definition of deviation-IQ scores. Some implications of these results concerning the distinction between intelligence and scholastic achievement, the causal model underlying the development of "crystallized" and "fluid" abilities, and the notion of "culture-fair" tests are discussed.     

The Correlation Between Causal Change and Initial Status: a methodological study

Based on the division of attained change for each treated individual into causal and non‐causal change, the product‐moment correlation between causal change and initial level is studied and compared with the correlation between attained change and initial level. The former correlation coefficient may be greater than, equal to, or smaller than the latter one, and the discrepancy between the two coefficients may be considerable. Some problems involved with the assessment of the former coefficient are discussed, and it is shown how the two coefficients are differently influenced by measurement errors. The alternative of expressing the relation between causal change and initial status explicitly in interactional terms is pointed out. The division of attained change into causal and non‐causal change is compared with the division of attained change into predicted total change from initial level and the corresponding residual change.     

Does education foster trust? Evidence from compulsory schooling reform in the UK

Although many studies document that education and trust are positively correlated, few studies examine whether this correlation represents a causal effect. This paper fills in the gap with data from the British Social Attitudes Survey. Firstly, using the OLS method, this paper finds that education and the three measures of trust—trust in people, trust in politicians, and trust in government—are all positively and significantly correlated. Secondly, to examine whether this correlation represents a causal effect, this paper exploits exogenous variation in educational attainment induced by the compulsory schooling reform in 1972. The regression discontinuity estimates suggest that the effects of education on the three measures of trust are all small and statistically insignificant. The findings imply that the OLS estimates may suffer from omitted variable bias and the effects of education on trust may be small.     

Re-examining the relationship between education and adult mental health in the UK: A research note

Previous studies using variation in education arising from compulsory schooling laws have found no causal effects of education on mental health in the UK. We re-examine the relationship between education and mental health in the UK by taking a different approach: sibling fixed-effects with controls for polygenic scores (summary measures of genetic predisposition) for educational attainment and adult depressive symptoms. We find that higher educational attainment is associated with better adult mental health, that sibling controls reduce these associations by ∼40–70% but important associations remain and find evidence for non-monotonic effects. We also find suggestive evidence that education partially “rescues” genetic predictors of poor mental health.     

The intergenerational effects of parental schooling on the cognitive and non-cognitive development of children

This article, using the National Child Development Study, estimates the causal relationship between parents’ schooling and children's cognitive and non-cognitive development using the 1947 compulsory schooling legislation in Great Britain. The least squares estimates suggest strong correlations between parental education and these developmental indicators. However, the instrument variable estimates are not sufficiently precise to find that either parent's schooling has a beneficial effect on children's cognitive and non-cognitive development.     

Compulsory schooling,education, depression and memory: New evidence from SHARELIFE

In this paper we provide new evidence on the causal effect of education on adult depression and cognition. We use SHARE data and schooling reforms in several European countries as instruments for educational attainment. We find that an extra year of education has a large and significant protective effect on mental health; the probability of suffering depression decreases by 6.5 percentage points. We find a large and significant protective effect on cognition as measured by word recall. We also explore whether heterogeneity and selection play a part in the large discrepancy between OLS and IV (LATE) estimates of the effect of education on depression and cognition. Using the data available in SHARELIFE on early life conditions of the respondents such as the individuals’ socioeconomic status, health, and performance at school, we identify subgroups particularly affected by the reforms and with high marginal health returns to education.     

A model of women’s educational factors related to delaying girls’ marriage

Delaying girls’ early marriage is a critical public health and education goal in developing countries, in which their own or their mothers’ education may play an important role. This paper reviews the existing evidence of any relationship between girls’ schooling or women’s literacy education and delayed marriage for themselves or their daughters. The majority of research reports focus on the correlation between girls’ schooling and brides’ age at first marriage. But it is conceivable that adult women’s/mothers’ literacy education also has considerable influence on the age at which their daughters are married. Since this aspect has hitherto not been explicitly investigated, the authors propose a model – based on relevant research about the outcomes of girls’ schooling and women’s literacy education – of the mechanisms that mediate between women’s education and delayed marriage for their daughters. The authors argue for research that will inform policy makers interested in helping girls complete secondary schooling about the potential contributions of adult women’s literacy education to this goal.     

Effective investment in women's futures: Schooling with learning

Women's schooling has long been regarded as one of the best investments in development. Yet countries vary widely in the extent to which a year of schooling conveys useful skills and knowledge and hence schooling and education cannot be treated as synonyms. Using two different cross-nationally comparable data sets which contain measures of schooling, assessments of literacy, and life outcomes for more than 50 countries we show the association of women's education, defined as schooling and the acquisition of literacy, with four life outcomes (fertility, child mortality, empowerment, and financial practices) is much larger than the standard estimates of the gains from schooling alone. In our preferred instrumental variables (IV) estimates, that correct for the attenuation bias induced by measurement error, the gain from education is more than 3 times larger than the standard OLS estimates of gains from schooling alone. While our results are not causal estimates, if anything like our results are true in the causal pathways whereby schooling and learning lead to improvements in women's well-being this implies the estimates of the costs and benefits of expansions in grade attainment versus improving learning need to be adjusted accordingly.     

On the Concept of Relative Autonomy in Educational Theory

In an effort to contribute to the further development of educational relative autonomy theory, this article raises a few basic issues with regard to the relationships between the internal structuring of schooling and educational functions of social reproduction and change. The concepts of positive, negative and critical correspondence are introduced in order to analyse different forms of structuring in schooling in relation to the commodity form of economic production. The historical significance of different forms of correspondence is touched upon, and the potentials of critical correspondence between schooling within the State and the commodity form are discussed in terms of a contradiction between the functions of efficient accumulation and legitimation.     

Earnings, rates of return to education and the earnings distribution in Pakistan

Utilizing data from a survey of 1000 households in Rawalpindi, this study presents estimates of the rate of return to schooling and differences in these rates of return by schooling level and sector of employment. The major finding reported is that the rate of return to schooling in one of Pakistan's major urban areas is low, both in relation to the rate of return on physical capital and in relation to the rates of return to schooling in other developing countries. These low rates of return appear to be a result of a conscious government policy which drastically compressed the skill-wage structure.     

课程考核方式对高校学生评教结果的影响

利用统计学方法检验不同"考核方式"对老师的"评教等级"与"学生成绩"间因果关系的影响,并以"考核方式"对"学生评教"的影响做t检验。结果显示:"学生成绩"与"学生评教"之间存在相关系数极小的正相关关系;课程"考核方式"与"学生评教"有显著的负相关关系,而与学生成绩无关。区别对待不同课程考核方式的学生评教结果,有利于教学管理部门正确认识和评定教师的教学水平,激励教师积极参与教学工作。     

The impact of education on health knowledge

The theory on the demand for health suggests that schooling causes health because schooling increases the efficiency of health production. Alternatively, the allocative efficiency hypothesis argues that schooling alters the input mix chosen to produce health. This suggests that the more educated have more knowledge about the health production function and they have more health knowledge. This paper uses data from the 1997 and 2002 waves of the NLSY97 to conduct an investigation of the allocative efficiency hypothesis by analyzing whether education improves health knowledge. The survey design allows us to observe the increase in health knowledge of young adults after their level of schooling is increased by differential and plausibly exogenous amounts. Using nine different questions measuring health knowledge, we find weak evidence that an increase in education generates an improvement in health knowledge for those who ultimately attend college. For those with high school as the terminal degree, no relationship is found between education and health knowledge. These results imply that the allocative efficiency hypothesis may not be the primary reason for why schooling impacts health outcomes.     

我国近代学制发展嬗变及启示

近代学制的形成是我国教育向近代转变的一个重要标志，它不仅反映了近代教育发展的轨迹，同时也对中国教育的发展产生了深刻的影响，对现代学制的形成意义重大。本文通过回顾壬寅癸卯学制、壬子癸丑学制和壬戊学制的发展历程，对各部学制的评价提出了一些新的认识和看法，并在此基础上得出几点启示：学制的改革要处理好相对稳定与适时变革、学习借鉴与参酌变通的关系；学制的制定要多方参与、力求民主，并根据各部学制的优长提出了未来学制的理想模式。     

Coming‐of‐age in 1980s England: reconceptualising black students’ schooling experience

Much conventional ‘race‐relations’ research of the schooling of black youth has tended to be underpinned by models of social pathology and subjective discrimination. It is argued here that there is a need to reconceptualise black youths’ schooling experience within a theoretical framework that moves beyond mono‐causal explanations and examines the multifaceted dimensions of racially structured English schooling. Placing students at the centre of the research enables us to see how schooling for black female and male youths is a central part of an alienating social response to them, that results in their experience of a structured ‘different reality’ from the white population. In response to this, they have, collectively and individually, creatively developed coping and survival strategies. These are examined here.     

Single‐sex schooling: is it simply a ‘class act’?

The current debate about boys education risks taking us back decades in terms of understanding the significance of gender in relation to education. Of particular concern here is the tendency within such debates to rely on dichotomous understandings of gender which reinscribe essentialist understandings of both ‘girls’ and ‘boys’. In this way, the so‐called gender wars construct a climate whereby difference between the categories obfuscates difference within each. Here this issue is explored most specifically in relation to access to higher education and the possible impact of single‐sex schooling. Current debates surrounding boys' experience of schooling have refreshed interest in the possible benefits of single‐sex education, particularly for boys. Schools are establishing single‐sex classes for boys and in some cases parallel education (the provision of single‐sex facilities for girls and boys at the same campus) is being promoted as a way forward. In this paper we examine data from Australia's largest and most diverse university in order to explore the relationship between single‐sex schooling and access to higher education in ways which account for difference based primarily on school sector and socio‐economic status. In these terms, if single‐sex schooling is beneficial for boys we need to consider which boys are benefiting and at whose expense.     

人口文化素质与经济发展水平的相关分析

对我国人均受教育年限与经济发展的相关分析表明 ,人均受教育年限与经济发展高度相关 ,并且两者的协调性略有提高 ;相关分析还表明人均受教育年限的增长率远远低于经济增长率 ,且两者没有显著的相关关系。对各级教育的人口比例与经济发展水平 (人均GDP)的相关分析发现 ,经济发展水平与各级教育人口数量显著相关 ,并且经济增长与各级受教育人口增长密切相关 ,但是各级受教育人口的增长率远远低于经济增长率。