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Mortality Risk and Educational Attainment of Black and White Men

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  • Li Gan
  • Guan Gong

Abstract

This paper investigates to what extent the differences in education between black and white men can be explained by the differences in their mortality risks. A dynamic optimal stopping-point life cycle model is examined, in which group-level mortality risk plays an important role in determining individual-level mortality risk, health expenditure,and the amount of schooling. The model is calibrated to quantify the effect of mortality risks on schooling by taking the black and white male population as the respective reference groups for black men and white men. We find that the impact of mortality risk on schooling explains more than two-thirds of the empirical education differences between black and white males. This conclusion is robust to a set of plausible parameter values.

Suggested Citation

  • Li Gan & Guan Gong, 2004. "Mortality Risk and Educational Attainment of Black and White Men," NBER Working Papers 10381, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10381
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Seema Jayachandran & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2009. "Life Expectancy and Human Capital Investments: Evidence from Maternal Mortality Declines," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(1), pages 349-397.
    2. Neha Kumra, 2017. "Childhood health and educational investment under risk," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Li Gan & Guan Gong, 2007. "Estimating Interdependence Between Health and Education in a Dynamic Model," NBER Working Papers 12830, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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