Econometric Study of Schooling, Information, and Smoking

描述（由申请人提供）：我们建议调查学校教育和吸烟行为之间的关系，作为一个案例研究，以阐明关于学校教育和健康之间联系的更普遍的问题。一个因果途径是通过健康信息，普通教育帮助消费者对有关吸烟等行为对健康后果的新信息作出反应。另外，学校教育与健康之间的联系可能不是因果关系，而是反映了不同学校教育水平的人之间难以观察到的差异。在研究1中，我们用计量经济学的方法分析了从20世纪20年代到20世纪末的个人一生中吸烟史的数据。研究1将检验假设1：在多胎队列中，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。重大创新将被考察

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.