We explore the relationship between education and mortality in a young population of males. We overcome omitted-variable bias by instrumenting education with the exemption from military service granted to certain cohorts of males in specific towns in the aftermath of a quake in Southern Italy in 1980. Results are based on comparisons of exempt and not exempt cohorts in towns least damaged by the quake with the same cohorts living in nearby towns outside the quake region. We find that the exemption increased high school completion rates by about 2.5 percentage points; mortality rates of the same cohorts also were significantly lower by about one fourth. Results are robust to a set of falsification exercises and consistency checks. Strikingly, we find the effect to be due to deaths for natural causes rather than accidental ones.
Presented by:
Alfonso Rosolia (Bank of Italy)
Date & time:
June 9, 2008 3:00 pm - June 8, 2008 11:00 pm
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