Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/115089 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
NRN Working Paper, NRN: The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State No. 1211
Publisher: 
Johannes Kepler University Linz, NRN - The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Linz
Abstract: 
We study the relationship between education and cognitive functioning at older ages by exploiting compulsory schooling reforms, implemented in six European countries during the 1950s and 1960s. Using data of individuals aged 50+ from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we assess the causal effect of education on old-age memory, fluency, numeracy, orientation and dementia. We find a positive impact of schooling on memory. One year of education increases the delayed memory score by about 0.3, which amounts to 16% of the standard deviation. Furthermore, for women, we find that more education reduces the risk of dementia.
Subjects: 
Compulsory schooling
Instrumental Variables
Education
Cognitive functioning
Memory
Aging
Dementia
JEL: 
I21
J14
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
2.06 MB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.