Econometric Study of Schooling, Information, and Smoking

描述(由申请者提供)：我们建议调查学校教育和吸烟行为之间的关系，作为一个个案研究，以阐明关于学校教育和健康之间联系的更一般的问题。其中一个原因是通过健康信息，普通教育帮助消费者对吸烟等行为对健康影响的新信息做出反应。或者，教育和健康之间的联系可能不是因果关系，而是反映了不同教育程度的人之间难以观察到的差异。在研究1中，我们对从20世纪20年代到20世纪末的个人一生吸烟史数据进行了计量经济学分析。研究1将检验假设1：在多胎出生的队列中，学校教育和开始吸烟之间的联系取决于青春期和成年早期可获得的吸烟健康信息。主要的创新将是审查 假设2：在多胎出生的队列中，就学与戒烟之间的联系取决于做出戒烟决定时在生命过程的后期可获得的吸烟健康信息；假设3：在吸烟健康信息传播之前开始吸烟的队列中，就学与戒烟之间的关系最强。研究二将使用工具变量(IV)方法来确定学校教育对吸烟开始和 停止。随着时间的推移，各州的教育政策有很大的差异，这些政策提供了完成学业成绩的自然或准实验差异。国家层面的政策变量将被用作学校教育的IVs，以检验假设4：完成学校教育对减少吸烟开始和增加戒烟有因果影响。我们采用IV方法时，会仔细考虑(A)建议的IV是否可被排除为吸烟结果的直接决定因素；及(B)是否有足够的解释能力作为受教育程度的决定因素。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to investigate the relationship between schooling and smoking behaviors as a case study to shed light on more general questions about the links between schooling and health. One causal pathway is through health information, where general schooling helps consumers respond to new information about the health consequences of behaviors such as smoking. Alternatively, the association between schooling and health may not be causal, but may instead reflect hard-to-observe differences between people with different levels of schooling. In Study 1 we econometrically analyze data on individual life-course smoking histories that span the period from the 1920s through the end of the 20th century. Study 1 will examine Hypothesis 1: The link between schooling and smoking initiation in multiple birth cohorts depends on the smoking health information available during adolescence and early adulthood. Major innovations will be to examine Hypothesis 2: The link between schooling and smoking cessation in multiple birth cohorts depends on the smoking health information available later in the life course when cessation decisions are made; and Hypothesis 3: The relationship between schooling and smoking cessation will be the strongest in the cohorts who initiated smoking before the spread of smoking health information. Study 2 will use the instrumental variables (IV) method to identify the causal impact of schooling on smoking initiation and cessation. There is substantial variation across states and over time in educational policies that provides natural or quasi-experimental variation in completed schooling outcomes. The state-level policy variables will be used as IVs for schooling to test Hypothesis 4: Completed schooling has a causal impact to reduce smoking initiation and increase smoking cessation. Our application of the IV method carefully considers whether the proposed IVs (a) can be excluded as direct determinants of the smoking outcomes; and (b) have sufficient explanatory power as determinants of schooling.