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The causal relationship between education, health and health related behaviour: Evidence from a natural experiment in England

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  • Nils Braakmann

    (Newcastle University, Business School – Economics, Newcastle upon Tyne)

Abstract

I exploit exogenous variation in the likelihood to obtain any sort of academic degree between January- and February-born individuals for 13 academic cohorts in England. For these cohorts compulsory schooling laws interacted with the timing of the CGE and O-level exams to change the probability of obtaining an academic degree by around 2 to 3 percentage points. I then use data on individuals born in these two months from the British Labour Force Survey and the Health Survey for England to investigate the effects of education on health using being February-born as an instrument for education. The results indicate neither an effect of education on various health related measures nor an effect on health related behaviour, e.g., smoking, drinking or eating various types of food.

Suggested Citation

  • Nils Braakmann, 2010. "The causal relationship between education, health and health related behaviour: Evidence from a natural experiment in England," Working Paper Series in Economics 190, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lue:wpaper:190
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    education; health; socio-economic gradient; education gradient;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

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