Working Paper: NBER ID: w17932
Authors: Costas Meghir; Mårten Palme; Emilia Simeonova
Abstract: We examine the effects of a major Swedish educational reform, that increased the years of compulsory schooling, on mortality and health. Using the gradual phase-in of the reform between 1949 and 1962 across municipalities, we estimate insignificant effects of the reform on mortality in the affected cohorts. From the confidence intervals we can rule out effects larger than 1-1.4 months of increased life expectancy. We find no significant impacts on mortality for individuals of low SES backgrounds, on deaths that are more likely to be affected by behavior, on hospitalizations, and consumption of prescribed drugs.
Keywords: education; mortality; health; Sweden; social experiment
JEL Codes: I12; I18; I21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Swedish educational reform (I28) | overall mortality rates (I12) |
| Swedish educational reform (I28) | life expectancy (J17) |
| Swedish educational reform (I28) | hospitalization rates (I18) |
| Swedish educational reform (I28) | prescription drug consumption (H51) |
| Swedish educational reform (I28) | health outcomes (I14) |
| SES (I20) | mortality rates (I12) |
| Swedish educational reform (I28) | deaths influenced by behavior (I12) |