Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/90099 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7648
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We aim to disentangle the relative contributions of (i) cognitive ability, and (ii) education on health and mortality using a structural equation model suggested by Conti et al. (2010). We extend their model by allowing for a duration dependent variable, and an ordinal educational variable. Data come from a Dutch cohort born between 1937 and 1941, including detailed measures of cognitive ability and family background at age 12. The data are subsequently linked to the mortality register 1995-2011, such that we observe mortality between ages 55 and 75. The results suggest that at least half of the unconditional survival differences between educational groups are due to a 'selection effect', primarily on basis of cognitive ability. Conditional survival differences across those having finished just primary school and those entering secondary education are still substantial, and amount to a 4 years gain in life expectancy, on average.
Subjects: 
education
cognitive ability
mortality
structural equation model
duration model
JEL: 
C41
I14
I24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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