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Education, health and subjective wellbeing in Europe

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  • Becchetti, Leonardo

    (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit)

  • Conzo, Pierluigi

    (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit)

  • Pisani, Fabio

    (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit)

Abstract

The productive and allocative theories predict that education has positive impact on health: the more educated adopt healthier life styles and use more efficiently health inputs and this explains why they live longer. We find partial support for these theories with an econometric analysis on a large sample of Europeans aged above 50 documenting a significant and positive correlation among education years, life styles, health outputs and functionalities. We however find confirmation for an anomaly already observed in the US, namely the more educated are more likely to contract cancer. Our results are robust when controlling for endogeneity and reverse causality in IV estimates with instrumental variables related to quarter of birth and neighbours’ cultural norms.

Suggested Citation

  • Becchetti, Leonardo & Conzo, Pierluigi & Pisani, Fabio, 2014. "Education, health and subjective wellbeing in Europe," AICCON Working Papers 138-2014, Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:aiccon:2014_138
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    1. Szanyi-Nagy, Sára & Vaskövi, Ágnes, 2021. "Hogyan élnek az európai nyugdíjasok? Egyéni szintű különbözőségek vizsgálata SHARE-adatok alapján [European quality of life in retirement. Analysing personal differences through SHARE data]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1336-1363.
    2. Becchetti, Leonardo & Conzo, Gianluigi & Trovato, Giovanni, 2023. "The social value of health: A frontier analysis of life expectancy gaps across 33 European countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    health satisfaction; education; life satisfaction; public health costs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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