Life Expectancy and Education: Evidence from the Cardiovascular Revolution

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract. This paper exploits the unexpected decline of deaths from cardiovascular diseases since the 1970s as a large positive health shock that affected predominantly old-age mortality; i.e., the fourth stage of the epidemiological transition. Using a differences-indifferences estimation strategy, we find that U.S. states with higher levels of cardiovasculardisease mortality prior the 1970s experienced greater increases in adult life expectancy and higher education enrollment. Our estimates suggest that the cardiovascular revolution caused an increase in life expectancy of 1.5 years and an increase in education enrollment of 9 percentage points, i.e. 52 percent of the observed increase from 1960 to 2000. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may

Health-Led Growth Since 1800

“…Endogeneity aside, the results are consistent with the results of Barreca (2010) who finds that educational attainment is reduced by 25% for individuals exposed to early-life malaria in the early-20th-century United States. The results are also consistent with the finding of Hansen and Strulik (2015) that…”

The Empirical Analysis of Disease Burden and Wealth Creation in Nigeria

“…Over the years, there seems to be a correlation between disease burden and education. One of such studies is by Hansen and Strulik (2015) which in their empirical studies on the effects of the cardiovascular revolution on the development of adult life expectancy and higher education. The study applied an instrumental-variable approach to spot the reduced-form brunt of adult life expectancy on advanced education.…”

Myopic Misery: Maternal Depression, Child Investments, and the Neurobiological Poverty Trap

“…This literature usually focusses on the mortality aspect of health and the Ben-Porath (1967) mechanism, according to which higher adult life expectancy induces investments in adult human capital (see e.g. Sunde, 2007, 2013;Hazan, 2009;Hansen and Strulik, 2015;Strulik and Werner, 2016) or child human capital (e.g. Zhang et al, 2001;Soares, 2005).…”

“…It is also more broadly related to the literature on the role of genes and other physiological characteristics for investment and economic growth [Galor and Moav (2002), Ashraf and Galor (2013), Cronqvist and Siegel (2015), Strulik (2015, 2016)] and to a larger literature that discusses how the interaction of adult health and education impacts on economic development. This literature usually focusses on the mortality aspect of health and the Ben-Porath (1967) mechanism, according to which higher adult life expectancy induces investments in adult human capital [see e.g., Cervellati and Sunde (2005), Hazan (2009), Cervellati and Sunde (2013), Hansen and Strulik (2017), Strulik and Werner (2016)] or child human capital [e.g., Zhang et al (2001), Soares (2005)]. In contrast to this literature, I focus on morbidity and gene-environment interaction.…”