Discussion paper

DP8524 Life Expectancy and Schooling: New Insights from Cross-Country Data

I argue that distinguishing between life expectancy at birth and life expectancy beyond the crucial early childhood years affects the relationship between life expectancy and schooling in a meaningful way. In particular, I show that while the change in life expectancy at birth between 1960 and 1990 is positively correlated with percentage change in schooling, the change in life expectancy at age 5 is, at best, uncorrelated with percentage change in schooling. This evidence weakens the quantitative importance of increasing life horizon beyond the early crucial childhood years for formal acquisition of human capital.

£6.00
Citation

Hazan, M (2011), ‘DP8524 Life Expectancy and Schooling: New Insights from Cross-Country Data‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 8524. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp8524