The Health Returns to Education: What Can We Learn from Twins?
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Lundborg, Petter
Abstract / Description
This paper estimates the health returns to education, using data on identical twins. I adopt a twin-differences strategy in order to obtain estimates that are not biased by unobserved family background and genetic traits that may affect both education and health. I further investigate to what extent within-twin-pair differences in schooling correlates with within-twinpair differences in early life health and parent-child relations. The results suggest a causal effect of education on health. Higher educational levels are found to be positively related to self-reported health but negatively related to the number of chronic conditions. Lifestyle factors, such as smoking and overweight, are found to contribute little to the education/health gradient. I am also able to rule out occupational hazards and health insurance coverage as explanations for the gradient. In addition, I find no evidence of heterogenous effects of education by parental education. Finally, the results suggest that factors that may vary within twin pairs, such as birth weight, early life health, parental treatment and relation with parents, do not predict within-twin pair differences in schooling, lending additional credibility to my estimates and to the general validity of using a twin-differences design to study the returns to education.
Keyword(s)
Gesundheit Erziehung Zwilling Fähigkeit Gesundheit Erziehung Zwilling Fähigkeit health production education schooling twins siblings returns to education ability biasPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2008
Is part of series
Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit/ Institute for the Study of Labor: IZA Discussion Paper Series;3399
Citation
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dp3399.pdfAdobe PDF - 190.74KBMD5: 7f7464ec090405b3c25a6d32005303b9
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There are no other versions of this object.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Lundborg, Petter
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2022-11-17T11:03:18Z
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Made available on2008-06-02
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Made available on2015-12-01T10:32:07Z
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Made available on2022-11-17T11:03:18Z
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Date of first publication2008
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Abstract / DescriptionThis paper estimates the health returns to education, using data on identical twins. I adopt a twin-differences strategy in order to obtain estimates that are not biased by unobserved family background and genetic traits that may affect both education and health. I further investigate to what extent within-twin-pair differences in schooling correlates with within-twinpair differences in early life health and parent-child relations. The results suggest a causal effect of education on health. Higher educational levels are found to be positively related to self-reported health but negatively related to the number of chronic conditions. Lifestyle factors, such as smoking and overweight, are found to contribute little to the education/health gradient. I am also able to rule out occupational hazards and health insurance coverage as explanations for the gradient. In addition, I find no evidence of heterogenous effects of education by parental education. Finally, the results suggest that factors that may vary within twin pairs, such as birth weight, early life health, parental treatment and relation with parents, do not predict within-twin pair differences in schooling, lending additional credibility to my estimates and to the general validity of using a twin-differences design to study the returns to education.en
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Persistent Identifierhttps://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bsz:291-psydok-16059
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11780/1068
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.8988
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Language of contenteng
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Is part ofIZA Discussion Paper Series No. 3399
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Is part of seriesForschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit/ Institute for the Study of Labor: IZA Discussion Paper Series;3399
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Keyword(s)Gesundheitde
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Keyword(s)Erziehungde
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Keyword(s)Zwillingde
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Keyword(s)Fähigkeitde
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Keyword(s)Gesundheitde
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Keyword(s)Erziehungde
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Keyword(s)Zwillingde
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Keyword(s)Fähigkeitde
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Keyword(s)health productionen
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Keyword(s)educationen
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Keyword(s)schoolingen
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Keyword(s)twinsen
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Keyword(s)siblingsen
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Keyword(s)returns to educationen
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Keyword(s)ability biasen
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleThe Health Returns to Education: What Can We Learn from Twins?en
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DRO typereport
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Visible tag(s)PsyDok