Does Schooling Improve Your Health? Evidence from the Educational Expansion in Western Germany

In this paper we use German Microcensus data to investigate whether the positive relationship between higher levels of schooling and health is causal by exploiting a natural experiment in Western Germany. During the 1960’s and 1970’s the educational system greatly expanded in Western Germany, but the timing of the educational expansion differed between states. This introduces exogenous variation in the accessibility of the schooling system which in turn affects individuals’ schooling choices. We find that schooling improves health both for men and women but that this effect is stronger for men. One way that schooling improves health is that better educated people refrain from smoking and are less often overweight, thereby reducing risk factors for serious illnesses. This protective effect of education is again stronger for men than for women.