Impact of Adults’ College Completion on their Parents’ Mortality: Evidence from the 1993 Korean Higher Education Reform

A large literature examines the economic and health returns to college education. We extend this literature by studying the upward intergenerational effects of children’s education on parental mortality. We exploit Korea’s 1993 Higher Education Reform, which we estimate raised college completion by 13 percentage points among eldest children in the 1974–1983 birth cohorts relative to the prior 10-year cohort. Using data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, reduced-form estimates indicate a 27% (s.e.=10%) reduction in mortality among parents whose oldest child was in the reform-affected cohort. Because the reform affected college completion but not other education levels or quality, we use it as an instrumental variable (IV) for child college completion. IV estimates indicate a 20% (s.e.=7%) reduction in parental mortality for children induced to complete college by the reform. These parents received greater financial support and contact from their children and had lower smoking and higher physical activity, although these mechanisms explain only a small share of the mortality benefit. Effects were larger for parents of daughters in reduced-form analyses, although IV estimates did not differ significantly by child gender. Future research should further investigate the mechanisms through which children’s college education affects parental mortality.