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The Effect of College Education on Health and Mortality: Evidence from Canada
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The Effect of College Education on Health and Mortality: Evidence from Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Guy Lacroix
  • Francois Lalibertée-Auger
  • Pierre-Carl Michaud
  • Daniel Parent

Abstract

We investigate the returns to college attendance in Canada in terms of health and mortality reduction. To do so, we first use a dynamic health microsimulation model to document how inter-ventions which incentivize college attendance among high school graduates may impact their health trajectory, health care consumption and life expectancy. We find large returns both in terms of longevity (4.1 years additional years at age 51), reduction in the prevalence of various health conditions (10-15 percentage points reduction in diabetes and 5 percentage points for stroke) and health care consumption (27.3% reduction in lifetime hospital stays, 19.7 for specialists). We find that education impacts mortality mostly by delaying the incidence of health conditions as well as providing a survival advantage conditional on having diseases. Second, we provide qua-si-experimental evidence on the impact of college attendance on long- term health outcomes by exploiting the Canadian Veteran's Rehabilitation Act, a program targeted towards returning WW-II veterans and which incentivized college attendance. The impact on mortality are found to be larger than those estimated from the health microsimulation model (hazard ratio of 0.216 com-pared to 0.6 in the simulation model) which suggest substantial returns to college education in terms of healthy life extension which we estimate around one million canadian dollars.

Suggested Citation

  • Guy Lacroix & Francois Lalibertée-Auger & Pierre-Carl Michaud & Daniel Parent, 2018. "The Effect of College Education on Health and Mortality: Evidence from Canada," Cahiers de recherche 1820, Centre de recherche sur les risques, les enjeux économiques, et les politiques publiques.
    • Handle: RePEc:lvl:crrecr:1820
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    Cited by:

    1. Vincenzo Atella & Dana Goldman & Daniel McFadden, 2021. "Disparate ageing: The role of education and socioeconomic gradients in future health and disability in an international context," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(S1), pages 3-10, November.
    2. Franca Glenzer & Pierre-Carl Michaud & Stefan Staubli, 2023. "Frames, Incentives, and Education: Effectiveness of Interventions to Delay Public Pension Claiming," NBER Working Papers 30938, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jason Fletcher & Hamid Noghanibehambari, 2024. "The effects of education on mortality: Evidence using college expansions," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 541-575, March.
    4. Hamid Noghanibehambari & Farzaneh Noghani, 2023. "Long‐run intergenerational health benefits of women empowerment: Evidence from suffrage movements in the US," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(11), pages 2583-2631, November.
    5. Jason Fletcher & Hamid Noghanibehambari, 2021. "The Effects of Education on Mortality: Evidence Using College Expansions," NBER Working Papers 29423, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    mortality; education; microsimulation; quasi-experimental; instrumental variables; veterans;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education

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