Understanding the effect of education on health across european countries
- Davia Rodríguez, María Ángeles
- Albert Verdú, Cecilia
ISSN: 1578-0252
Year of publication: 2007
Issue: 6
Pages: 3-36
Type: Article
More publications in: Papeles de trabajo del Instituto de Estudios Fiscales. Serie economía
Abstract
In this piece of work we explore the link between education and health in eleven European Union countries. We compute country-specific health production functions following Grossman¿s human capital approach where education is one of the main inputs. Our empirical strategy, a set of generalised (cross section and random effects) ordered probit models on a sample of wage earners has enabled us to distinguish in a very detailed way positive returns of both upper secondary and tertiary education on health. We observe positive (and usually decreasing) returns to education in terms of health improvements in all the selected countries, although the level of return rates vary across countries.