Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages? Causal Evidence from Nonparametric Bounds. A new GLO Discussion Paper by Vikesh Amin, Jason M. Fletcher, Hans-Peter Kohler & GLO Fellows Jere Behrman, Carlos Flores and Alfonso Flores-Lagunes.

A new GLO Discussion Paper finds evidence for a causal effect of increasing schooling from secondary to tertiary on cognition. 

GLO Discussion Paper No. 1114, 2022

Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages? Causal Evidence from Nonparametric Bounds  Download PDF
by Amin, Vikesh & Behrman, Jere R. & Fletcher, Jason M. & Flores, Carlos A. & Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso & Kohler, Hans-Peter

GLO Fellows Jere Behrman, Carlos Flores and Alfonso Flores-Lagunes

Alfonso Flores-Lagunes

Author Abstract: We revisit the much-investigated relationship between schooling and health, focusing on cognitive abilities at older ages using the Harmonized Cognition Assessment Protocol in the Health & Retirement Study. To address endogeneity concerns, we employ a nonparametric partial identification approach that provides bounds on the population average treatment effect using a monotone instrumental variable together with relatively weak monotonicity assumptions on treatment selection and response. The bounds indicate potentially large effects of increasing schooling from primary to secondary but are also consistent with small and null effects. We find evidence for a causal effect of increasing schooling from secondary to tertiary on cognition. We also replicate findings from the Health & Retirement Study using another sample of older adults from the Midlife in United States Development Study Cognition Project.

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JUST PUBLISHED
Vol. 35, Issue 3, July 2022: Journal of Population Economics (JOPE): 15 articles
https://link.springer.com/journal/148/volumes-and-issues/35-3
Just released: CiteScore of JOPE moves up from 3.9 (2020) to 6.5 (2021)! LINK
Similar, its Impact Factor is now 4.7 (2021) after 2.8 (2020)! LINK

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers)Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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