The health returns of attending university for the marginally eligible student
Heckley, Gawain LU
; Nordin, Martin
LU
and Gerdtham, Ulf-G
LU
(2022)
In Health Economics
31(5).
p.877-903
- Abstract
A key policy question is whether continued expansion of university education is beneficial for the marginally eligible student. In this paper we exploit an arbitrary university eligibility rule combined with regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal effect of university attendance on healthcare utilization amongst young adults in Sweden. We find that the eligibility rule leads to a clear jump in university attendance of between 10% and 14% points for both males and females. 2SLS estimates find that a 10% point increase in university attendance causes a roughly one percentage point increase in hospital admissions due to mental ill health for males, almost exclusively related to alcohol and narcotics. Our findings for... (More)
A key policy question is whether continued expansion of university education is beneficial for the marginally eligible student. In this paper we exploit an arbitrary university eligibility rule combined with regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal effect of university attendance on healthcare utilization amongst young adults in Sweden. We find that the eligibility rule leads to a clear jump in university attendance of between 10% and 14% points for both males and females. 2SLS estimates find that a 10% point increase in university attendance causes a roughly one percentage point increase in hospital admissions due to mental ill health for males, almost exclusively related to alcohol and narcotics. Our findings for females, however, imply the opposite, suggesting that university attendance decreases hospital admissions related to mental health. The results for males sit in contrast to results from previous studies, and suggest that the effect of university education on health for the male student at the margin of eligibility is different to that of the average student.
(Less)
- author
- Heckley, Gawain
LU
; Nordin, Martin
LU
and Gerdtham, Ulf-G
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- demand for health, regression discontinuity design, the health returns of education
- in
- Health Economics
- volume
- 31
- issue
- 5
- pages
- 877 - 903
- publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Inc.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85125176423
- pmid:35212069
- ISSN
- 1099-1050
- DOI
- 10.1002/hec.4484
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- f1620884-0444-4f82-aa80-4ff1994a20e8
- date added to LUP
- 2022-02-28 08:08:05
- date last changed
- 2024-06-21 13:56:49
@article{f1620884-0444-4f82-aa80-4ff1994a20e8,
abstract = {{<p>A key policy question is whether continued expansion of university education is beneficial for the marginally eligible student. In this paper we exploit an arbitrary university eligibility rule combined with regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal effect of university attendance on healthcare utilization amongst young adults in Sweden. We find that the eligibility rule leads to a clear jump in university attendance of between 10% and 14% points for both males and females. 2SLS estimates find that a 10% point increase in university attendance causes a roughly one percentage point increase in hospital admissions due to mental ill health for males, almost exclusively related to alcohol and narcotics. Our findings for females, however, imply the opposite, suggesting that university attendance decreases hospital admissions related to mental health. The results for males sit in contrast to results from previous studies, and suggest that the effect of university education on health for the male student at the margin of eligibility is different to that of the average student.</p>}},
author = {{Heckley, Gawain and Nordin, Martin and Gerdtham, Ulf-G}},
issn = {{1099-1050}},
keywords = {{demand for health; regression discontinuity design; the health returns of education}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{5}},
pages = {{877--903}},
publisher = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
series = {{Health Economics}},
title = {{The health returns of attending university for the marginally eligible student}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hec.4484}},
doi = {{10.1002/hec.4484}},
volume = {{31}},
year = {{2022}},
}