The effects of education on health and mechanisms: evidence from China

Existing studies that explore the effects of education on health primarily focused on developed countries, and the extent to which education impacts health is still highly debated. This paper studies the causal effects of education on health in the largest developing country-China. We use 1977 Resuming College Entrance Exam Policy as an IV and find that education has little impact on health in general, while our findings suggest that people with higher education are more likely to be diagnosed with hypertension. We also test some possible mechanisms through which education might affect health, including smoking, drinking, exercise, and cognition. Majorities of these estimations provide no evidence that education would impact health behaviors or cognitive abilities. However, we find that higher-educated men are more likely to drink more and exercise less.