2021, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, "Mortality Rates by Education Level, Pre- and Post-Pandemic"

Within age, gender, racial, and ethnic groups in the United States, mortality rates are lower for those who have attained higher levels of education. As a result of the pandemic, mortality rates in 2020 were higher than the corresponding rates in 2019 for all groups. The ratio of the mortality rates of those who had completed college to those who had not nevertheless has changed very little over the past two years. This is despite the fact that the mix of occupations varies with educational attainment. The "protective effect" of education on COVID-19 mortality was similar to that for other sources of death. A new study (29328) by NBER researchers Anne Case and Angus Deaton of Princeton University documents these patterns by analyzing recently released data from the National Center for Health Statistics. They find that the pandemic maintains pre-existing mortality disparities. The researchers summarize their findings in the video above.  An archive of NBER videos on pandemic-related research may be found here.