Life-cycle health effects of compulsory schooling

We study the effect of education on health (hospital stays, number of diagnosed conditions, poor or bad self-rated health, and body mass index) over the life cycle, using German compulsory schooling reforms as a source of exogenous variation. Our results show clear correlations between educational attainment and better health across all age groups (30 to 74). However, we do not find causal relationships between additional schooling and health or health care utilization, neither earlier nor later in life. A simulated ex-post power analysis shows that this is not due to a lack of statistical power. One reason for the absence of effects may be that the studied compulsory schooling reforms succeeded in raising the educational attainment of the target group - individuals at the lowest educational margin - but did not lead to healthier employment opportunities.