Econometric Study of Schooling, Information, and Smoking

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 阐明了关于学校教育和健康之间联系的更普遍的问题。其中一条原因是 通过健康信息，普通学校教育帮助消费者对有关 吸烟等行为的健康后果。或者，学校教育和教育之间的联系 健康可能不是因果关系，但可能反映出不同疾病患者之间难以观察到的差异。 受教育程度。在研究1中，我们对个人一生吸烟史的数据进行了计量分析。 这段时间从20世纪20年代到20世纪末。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吸烟的健康状况 在青春期和成年早期可获得的信息。主要的创新将是审查 假设2：在多胎出生的队列中，就学和戒烟之间的联系取决于 在作出戒烟决定时，在生命过程的后期可获得吸烟健康信息；以及 假设3：学校教育和戒烟之间的关系将是最强烈的 吸烟健康信息传播前开始吸烟的队列。研究2将使用 工具变量(IV)确定学校教育对开始吸烟和吸烟的因果影响的方法 停止。随着时间的推移，各州的教育政策存在着很大的差异，这些政策提供了 完成学业成绩的自然或准实验差异。州级政策变量 将被用作就学的IV来检验假设4：完成就学有因果影响 启动吸烟，增加戒烟。我们对静脉注射方法的应用仔细考虑了 (A)建议的静脉注射可否排除为吸烟结果的直接决定因素；及(B) 有足够的解释力作为学校教育的决定因素。

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.