The Relationship Between Education and Adult Mortality in the United States

Adriana Lleras-Muney

NBER Working Paper No. 8986
Issued in June 2002
NBER Program(s):   HC   HE

Prior research has uncovered a large and positive correlation between education and health. This paper examines whether education has a causal impact on health. I follow synthetic cohorts using successive U.S. censuses to estimate the impact of educational attainment on mortality rates. I use compulsory education laws from 1915 to 1939 as instruments for education. The results suggest that education has a causal impact on mortality, and that this effect is perhaps larger than has been previously estimated in the literature.

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Published: Lleras-Muney, Adriana. "The Relationships Between Education And Adult Mortality In The United States," Review of Economic Studies, 2005, v72(250,Jan), 189-221.

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