The Effects of Education on Mortality: Evidence From Linked U.S. Census and Administrative Mortality Data.

ABSTRACT: Does education change people's lives in a way that delays mortality? Or is education primarily a proxy for unobserved endowments that promote longevity? Most scholars conclude that the former is true, but recent evidence based on Danish twin data calls this conclusion into question. Unfortunately, these potentially field-changing findings-that obtaining additional schooling has no independent effect on survival net of other hard-to-observe characteristics-have not yet been subject to replication outside Scandinavia. In this article, we produce the first U.S.-based estimates of the effects of education on mortality using a representative panel of male twin pairs drawn from linked complete-count census and death records. For comparison purposes, and to shed additional light on the roles that

SUBMITTER: Halpern-Manners A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7890646 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature