Exploring the Causal Effects of Educational Attainment on Adult Health

Exploratory Workshop Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Time: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Location: Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge (directions)

Overview and goals of the workshop:
In the US and Europe, adults with more education live longer and healthier lives than adults with less education. Moreover, the gap in longevity across education levels widened during the last half century. During the 1990s alone, the gap in life expectancy at age 25 increased 1-2 years (depending on race and gender) between adults who attained at least some college education and adults with fewer years of schooling. By 2000, adults with at least some college could expect to live 5-9 years longer than their less-educated peers. These disparities have received increasing attention among scholars and policy makers. Reducing health disparities by socioeconomic status is a major component of the Healthy People initiative of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Thus, it is important to understand why the association between education and mortality exists and whether it is causal. Despite several studies on the topic, there remains some debate about this relationship. Some studies conclude that education causes better health, while others find that educational attainment is the result of being in good health, and still others show that the association is spurious.  This workshop will bring together leading investigators to discuss: (1) the current state of knowledge on the topic within the US and Europe, (2) potential explanations for disparate conclusions, and (3) innovative approaches and datasets that could be used to examine causality.

Faculty Convener:
Jennifer Montez, RWJF Health & Society Scholar, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Esther Friedman, RWJF Health & Society Scholar, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies

Agenda (forthcoming)

Speakers and participants:
David Baker, Professor of Education and Sociology, Penn State University
Jere Behrman, Professor of Economics, University of Pennsylvania
Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, David E. Bell Fellow, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Lisa Berkman, Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
David Cutler, Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics, Harvard
Maria Glymour, Assistant Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard Sch of Public Hlth
Mark Hayward, Professor of Sociology & Centennial Commission Professor in the Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin
Robert Hummer, Professor of Sociology & Centennial Commission Professor of Liberal Arts #1, University of Texas at Austin
Ichiro Kawachi, Chair, Dept of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public health
Hans-Peter Kohler, Frederick J. Warren Professor of Demography, University of Pennsylvania
Bruce G. Link, Professor of Epidemiology and Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia
Sze Liu, PhD, Research Analyst, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Adriana Lleras-Muney, Professor of Economics, UCLA
Ryan Masters, RWJF Health & Society Scholar, Columbia

Note that PUBLICATIONS relevant to this workshop will be posted on this page.