American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Parental Education and Child Health: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Taiwan
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 2,
no. 1, January 2010
(pp. 33–61)
Abstract
In 1968, the Taiwanese government extended compulsory education from 6 to 9 years and opened over 150 new junior high schools at a differential rate among regions. Within each region, we exploit variations across cohorts in new junior high school openings to construct an instrument for schooling, and employ it to estimate the causal effects of mother's or father's schooling on infant birth outcomes in the years 1978-1999. Parents' schooling does cause favorable infant health outcomes. The increase in schooling associated with the reform saved almost 1 infant life in 1,000 live births. (JEL I12, I21, J12, J13, R23)Citation
Chou, Shin-Yi, Jin-Tan Liu, Michael Grossman, and Ted Joyce. 2010. "Parental Education and Child Health: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Taiwan." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2 (1): 33–61. DOI: 10.1257/app.2.1.33Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I12 Health Production
- I21 Analysis of Education
- J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- R23 Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
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Michael Grossman