Panel Paper:
Does Education Affect Health?: Leveraging Changes in Social Security Benefits
Saturday, November 10, 2018
Wilson B - Mezz Level (Marriott Wardman Park)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Education is an important correlate of health and risky behaviors. However, determining the causal effect of education on health is difficult due to the endogeneity of education; health and education could be related through multiple pathways, including the potential effect of health on educational attainment. While many studies have examined variation in secondary schooling based on mandated school attendance for teenagers, fewer studies have examined post-secondary education. To test the causal effect of higher education on weight and general health, I exploit a shock in a cash transfer that was conditional on enrollment in college as an instrument for education. First I confirm this cash transfer is a strong and valid instrument for education; the instrument has meaningful effects on educational attainment and appears to be only related to health through education. Second, I find this change in education has important effects on health, specifically weight and general health.
The instrument is based on Social Security benefits for children. Minor children of retired or disabled Social Security beneficiaries as well as children with deceased parents are eligible for their own Social Security benefit. Between the mid-1960s and the early-1980s, college-aged child recipients could continue to receive this benefit conditional on college enrollment. Dynarski (2003) showed that the termination of these benefits to college students caused a sharp decline in college-going among eligible young adults as compared to ineligible young adults. First, I confirm Dynarski’s finding that this program had a large and meaningful effect on education by utilizing (1) a larger dataset (National Health Interview Survey), (2) a more accurate measure of eligibility based on administrative records, and (3) a similar difference-in-differences strategy. I then use the exogenous variation in educational attainment caused by changes in Social Security benefits to determine the causal effect of education on health.
In preliminary analyses, I find that financial aid increased educational attainment for beneficiaries, including increasing the likelihood of attending any college and graduating from college. Interestingly, this effect is concentrated in women, with little to no effect on men. This heterogeneous effect by gender on education allows me to use men in a falsification test for the effect of education on health. Consistent with the first stage, I find meaningful benefits on women’s body mass index and general self-described health, but I find no effects for men.
The instrument is based on Social Security benefits for children. Minor children of retired or disabled Social Security beneficiaries as well as children with deceased parents are eligible for their own Social Security benefit. Between the mid-1960s and the early-1980s, college-aged child recipients could continue to receive this benefit conditional on college enrollment. Dynarski (2003) showed that the termination of these benefits to college students caused a sharp decline in college-going among eligible young adults as compared to ineligible young adults. First, I confirm Dynarski’s finding that this program had a large and meaningful effect on education by utilizing (1) a larger dataset (National Health Interview Survey), (2) a more accurate measure of eligibility based on administrative records, and (3) a similar difference-in-differences strategy. I then use the exogenous variation in educational attainment caused by changes in Social Security benefits to determine the causal effect of education on health.
In preliminary analyses, I find that financial aid increased educational attainment for beneficiaries, including increasing the likelihood of attending any college and graduating from college. Interestingly, this effect is concentrated in women, with little to no effect on men. This heterogeneous effect by gender on education allows me to use men in a falsification test for the effect of education on health. Consistent with the first stage, I find meaningful benefits on women’s body mass index and general self-described health, but I find no effects for men.
