Working Paper: NBER ID: w27217
Authors: Hamid R. Oskorouchi; Alfonso Sousa-Poza; David E. Bloom
Abstract: By exploiting rich retrospective data on childhood immunization, socioeconomics, and health status in China (the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study), we assess the long-term effects of childhood vaccination on cognitive and educational outcomes in that country. To do so, we apply various techniques (e.g., propensity score and coarsened exact matching and correlated random effects) to different sets of conditioning variables and subsamples to estimate the average treatment on the treated effect of childhood vaccination. Our results confirm that vaccinations before the age of 15 have long-term positive and economically meaningful effects on nonhealth outcomes such as education and cognitive skills. These effects are relatively strong, with vaccinated individuals enjoying about one more year of schooling and performing substantially better later in life on several cognitive tests.
Keywords: Childhood Vaccination; Cognitive Skills; Educational Outcomes
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 |
|---|---|
| Childhood Vaccination (J13) | Improved Child Health (I19) |
| Improved Child Health (I19) | Better Educational Outcomes (I24) |
| Childhood Vaccination (J13) | Educational Attainment (I21) |
| Childhood Vaccination (J13) | Cognitive Skills (G53) |