Does More Schooling Improve Health Outcomes and Health Related Behaviors? Evidence from U.K. Twins.

ABSTRACT: Several recent studies using instrumental variables based on changes in compulsory schoolleaving age laws have estimated the causal effect of schooling on health outcomes and health-related behaviors in the U.K. Despite using the same identification strategy and similar datasets, no consensus has been reached. We contribute to the literature by providing results for the U.K. using a different research design and a different dataset. Specifically, we estimate the effect of schooling on health outcomes (obesity and physical health) and health-related behaviors (smoking, alcohol consumption and exercise) for women through within-MZ twins estimates using the TwinsUK database. For physical health, alcohol consumption and exercise, the within-MZ twins estimates are uninformative about whether th

SUBMITTER: Amin V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3885175 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature