The impact of an unequal distribution of education on inequalities in life expectancy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15742136 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Clemens Danler (0000-0002-2071-3863, Vienna University of Economics and Business), Katharina Gabriela Pfaff (0000-0002-3393-4374, Vienna University of Economics and Business, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Pages | 100954-100954 |
| Publication date | 2021-11-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | SSM - Population Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2352-8273 • E-ISSN: 2352-8273 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100954 |
| PMID | 34805476 |
| OpenAlex | W3214670841 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 32 |
Prior research has found socio-economic determinants such as education to affect health outcomes. Yet, education is not distributed equally among the population. This article attempts to quantify the impact of unequal distribution of education on inequalities in life expectancy. We calculate a Gini coefficient of longevity from the life tables provided by the Human Mortality Database and a Gini coefficient of education using data on educational attainment from Barro and Lee (2013). We estimate linear regression models to examine the relationship between inequality in education and inequality in life expectancy at the country level for up to 31 European countries between 1970 and 2010. Results provide empirical evidence for a statistically significant positive association between educational inequality and inequalities of longevity. Confounding factors reflecting individual health behaviour such as cigarette or alcohol consumption do not exert a separate statistically significant effect on inequality in life expectancy. Findings are robust to alternative calculation of key variables, dropping a potential outlier, and an alternative estimation approach. These findings suggest that not only education, but also equality in education is a crucial factor for health outcomes. Continuing efforts should be directed towards the reduction of educational inequality in order to reduce inequality in longevity within a country
Demographic economics · Econometrics · Economic growth · Economic inequality · Economics · Educational attainment · Gini coefficient · Inequality · Life expectancy · Longevity · Outlier · Population · Sociology · Statistics · Demography · Employment and Welfare Studies · Global Health Care Issues · Health disparities and outcomes · Mathematics · Medicine · Gerontology
Heterogeneous Effect of Corruption on Life Expectancy Inequality in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Economic and social determinants of life expectancy in China
Determinants of life expectancy in high longevity countries
Impact of education and income inequalities on life expectancy
Identifying priority diseases and injuries to promote equality as measured by health-adjusted life expectancy
Moderating effects of educational inequality on education polygenic scores, attained education and dementia-risk relationships
The socioeconomic distribution of life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in Chile
Education, Social Status, and Health
The Causal Effect of Education on Health
More variation in lifespan in lower educated groups
Broken Limits to Life Expectancy
The Relation between Health Insurance Coverage and Clinical Outcomes among Women with Breast Cancer
Recent trends in life expectancy across high income countries
The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014
Inequalities in Life Expectancy Among US Counties, 1980 to 2014
Education and Health
Money, schooling, and health
Bring out your dead
A new data set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010
Level of education and alcohol abuse and dependence in adulthood
Associations Between Minimum Wage Policy and Access to Health Care
Comparison of Smoking Cessation Between Education Groups
Distribution of Education and Population Health
Inequalities of Income and Inequalities of Longevity
Smoking prevalence in US birth cohorts
Living and dying in the USA
Inequalities in nonfatal work injury
Education, cognitive ability, and cause-specific mortality
| Citations per year | 2.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |