This paper sheds light on the causal relationship between education and health outcomes. We combine three surveys (SHARE, HRS and ELSA) that include nationally representative samples of people aged 50 and over from fourteen OECD countries. We use variation in the timing of educational reforms across these countries as an instrument for education. Using IV-probit models, we find causal evidence that more years of education lead to better health. One additional year of schooling is associated with 6.85 percentage points (pp) reduction in reporting poor health and 3.8 pp and 4.6 pp reduction in having self-reported difficulties with activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental ADLs, respectively. The marginal effect of education on the probability of having a chronic illness is a 4.4 pp reduction. This ranges from a reduction of 3.4 pp for heart disease to a 7 pp reduction for arthritis. The effects are larger than those from a probit model that does not control for the endogeneity of education. However, we do not find conclusive evidence that education reduces the risk of cancer, stroke and psychiatric illness.

中文翻译：

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教育对健康的影响：国家义务教育改革的证据

本文阐明了教育与健康结果之间的因果关系。我们结合了三个调查（SHARE，HRS和ELSA），其中包括来自14个经合组织国家的50岁及50岁以上人口的全国代表性样本。我们将这些国家/地区的教育改革时机作为教育的手段。使用IV概率模型，我们发现因果关系表明，接受更多的教育会带来更好的健康状况。一年的上学时间与报告不良健康状况的人减少6.85个百分点（pp）有关，而与自我报告的日常生活活动（ADL）和工具性ADL困难相关的pp分别减少3.8 pp和4.6 pp。教育对患上慢性病的可能性的边际影响降低了4.4 pp。减少幅度为3。心脏病4 pp，关节炎7 pp降低。其影响要大于不能控制教育内生性的概率模型所产生的影响。但是，我们没有确凿的证据表明教育可以降低罹患癌症，中风和精神疾病的风险。