How Does Parental Education Affect Child Health?
- Presenter:
Chair: James Burgess; Discussant: James Burgess Wed June 7, 2006 8:00-9:30 Room 225
Estimating the causal effect of education on one’s own or one’s children’s health is complicated by the fact that unobserved variation across individuals could cause both health and education. Little prior research considers the effect of parent’s education on child health in a developed country context. A recent exception is Currie and Moretti (QJE, 2003) who show that exogenous increases in college education induced by college openings has a beneficial impact on an infant’s health. No study has examined how parental high school completion causally affects infant, child or adolescent health in the US. Our paper provides answers to this question, and investigates mechanisms that may be responsible for this effect. We exploit variation in state educational testing policies (graduation requirements and GED) that lead to exogenous differences in high school educational attainment. We conduct our study with two data sets; the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 (NLSY79) cohort, and the Natality Detail Dat??????f health care services, or through health related behaviors.
