tailieunhanh - EDUCATION AND HEALTH: EVALUATING THEORIES AND EVIDENCE

Drugs use affects all school communities in New Zealand. It is associated with health risks, including injury, problem behaviours, depression and other risk- taking activities, and affects students’ welfare and safety, social relationships and identities, and their ability to learn and achieve their full potential. Problems arising from drug use among young New Zealanders are primarily associated with alcohol, tobacco and cannabis. While the use of these substances is evident in all communities in New Zealand, the extent of youth drug use is often portrayed in the media in sensational terms, with the potential for popular myths to develop. | NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES EDUCATION AND HEALTH EVALUATING THEORIES AND EVIDENCE David M. Cutler Adriana Lleras-Muney Working Paper 12352 http www .nber. org papers w12352 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge MA 02138 June 2006 This paper was prepared for the conference on The Health Effects of Non-Health Policies organized by the National Poverty Center. We are grateful to Angus Deaton and to the conference participants and editors for comments. We are also grateful to the National Institutes on Aging for research support. Tom Vogl provided outstanding research support for this project. The views expressed herein are those of the author s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. 2006 by David M. Cutler and Adriana Lleras-Muney. All rights reserved. Short sections of text not to exceed two paragraphs may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit including notice is given to the source. Education and Health Evaluating Theories and Evidence David M. Cutler and Adriana Lleras-Muney NBER Working Paper No. 12352 June 2006 JEL No. I1 I2 ABSTRACT There is a large and persistent association between education and health. In this paper we review what is known about this link. We first document the facts about the relationship between education and health. The education gradient is found for both health behaviors and health status though the former does not fully explain the latter. The effect of education increases with increasing years of education with no evidence of a sheepskin effect. Nor are there differences between blacks and whites or men and women. Gradients in behavior are biggest at young ages and decline after age 50 or 60. We then consider differing reasons why education might be related to health. The obvious economic explanations - education is related to income or occupational choice - explain only a part of the education effect. We suggest that increasing .