Health status and schooling decisions of young men

This paper considers the impact of health status on schooling attainment and earnings of young men. Using the National Longitudinal Surveys of Male Youth (aged 19–29 in 1971), we find a statistically significant negative relationship between years of schooling and health status. Those with the most severe health problems obtain almost 2.4 fewer years of schooling than their healthy counterparts. This loss represents about 20% of mean schooling for the entire sample. Also, hourly earnings are reduced by approximately 17% directly and indirectly (via schooling reductions) by health problems.