TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lleras-Muney,Adriana
TI  - The Relationship Between Education and Adult Mortality in the United States
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8986
PY  - 2002
Y2  - June 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8986
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8986.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Adriana Lleras-Muney
Department of Economics
9373 Bunche Hall
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Tel: 310/825-3925
Fax: NA
E-Mail: alleras@ECON.UCLA.EDU
AB  - 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.
ER  -