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Journal of Population Economics

, Volume 32, Issue 2, pp 551–589 | Cite as

Revisiting the relationship between longevity and lifetime education: global evidence from 919 surveys

  • Mohammad Mainul Hoque
  • Elizabeth M. King
  • Claudio E. Montenegro
  • Peter F. OrazemEmail author
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

The contrasting results from previous research motivate this reexamination of the longevity-schooling relationship. The study uses a different identification strategy applied to cohort-specific data from 919 household surveys conducted between 1960 and 2012 spanning 147 countries. We find a significant positive relationship between increased life expectancy at birth and lifetime completed years of schooling in 95% of the surveys and significant negative effects only in 0.3%. In addition, parents’ own longer life expectancy at birth has intergenerational benefits for their children’s schooling. The 31-year increase in life expectancy at birth worldwide for birth cohorts 1922–1987 is associated with 60–100% of the 4.8 additional years of completed schooling for those birth cohorts. These results are robust for different specifications across surveys, population groups, and world regions.

Keywords

Life expectancy Lifetime education Cohort Human capital Ben-Porath 

JEL classification

J10 I15 O15 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the referees and the editor for excellent comments and advice on our prior version.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Bangladesh Institute of Development StudiesDhakaBangladesh
  2. 2.The Brookings InstitutionWashington D.C.USA
  3. 3.Department of EconomicsUniversity of ChileSantiagoChile
  4. 4.World BankWashington D.C.USA
  5. 5.German Development InstituteBonnGermany
  6. 6.Department of EconomicsIowa State UniversityAmesUSA
  7. 7.IZABonnGermany

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