Explaining the Rise in Educational Gradients in Mortality

NBER Working Paper Series, No. 15678

47 Pages Posted: 21 Nov 2016

See all articles by David M. Cutler

David M. Cutler

Harvard University - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)

Fabian Lange

McGill University

Ellen Meara

Harvard Medical School; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Seth Richards-Shubik

Lehigh University - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Christopher J. Ruhm

University of Virginia - Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 18, 2016

Abstract

The long-standing inverse relationship between education and mortality strengthened substantially later in the 20th century. This paper examines the reasons for this increase. We show that behavioral risk factors are not of primary importance. Smoking has declined more for the better educated, but not enough to explain the trend. Obesity has risen at similar rates across education groups, and control of blood pressure and cholesterol has increased fairly uniformly as well. Rather, our results show that the mortality returns to risk factors, and conditional on risk factors, the return to education, have grown over time.

JEL Classification: I1,I12

Suggested Citation

Cutler, David M. and Lange, Fabian and Meara, Ellen and Richards-Shubik, Seth and Ruhm, Christopher J., Explaining the Rise in Educational Gradients in Mortality (November 18, 2016). NBER Working Paper Series, No. 15678, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2872292 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2872292

David M. Cutler

Harvard University - Department of Economics ( email )

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Fabian Lange (Contact Author)

McGill University ( email )

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Ellen Meara

Harvard Medical School ( email )

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Seth Richards-Shubik

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