Education and Mortality: Evidence from a Social Experiment

Abstract

We examine the effects of a major Swedish educational reform, that increased the years of compulsory schooling, on mortality and health. Using the gradual phase-in of the reform between 1949 and 1962 across municipalities, we estimate insignificant effects of the reform on mortality in the affected cohorts. From the confidence intervals we can rule out effects larger than 1-1.4 months of increased life expectancy. We find no significant impacts on mortality for individuals of low SES backgrounds, on deaths that are more likely to be affected by behavior, on hospitalizations, and consumption of prescribed drugs.