The effects of school quality on long-term health

In this paper I estimate the relationship between school quality and mortality. Although many studies have linked the quantity of education to health outcomes, the effect of school quality on health has yet to be examined. I construct synthetic birth cohorts and relate the quality of education they attained to their mortality rates. I find that there is a statistically significant relationship between the mortality–schooling gradients, which depict the return to a year of schooling, and the length of school term and relative teacher wage. For instance, increasing the relative teacher wage by one standard deviation results in about 1.9 less deaths per 1000 people per extra year of education. My results suggest that one way to improve the health of the population is to improve school quality.

► I examine the relationship between school quality and mortality. ► School quality is measured by the pupil–teacher ratio, length of term, and teacher wage. ► I find that increasing school quality increases the health return to education. ► There is also a direct relationship between school quality and overall mortality rates.