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Presentation

Session: Posters
Room: TBA
Time: Fri 13:00-14:30

Presenter: Mabel Andalón (The University of Melbourne. Economics)

Abstract

It is well established that schooling is one of the most important correlates of smoking and other risky behaviours. Although there is a large body of empirical research exploring the causes of this association in developed countries, there is a dearth of studies on the subject in developing countries, where about 80% of the current smokers live. This paper fills this gap measuring the causal effect of schooling on individual’s smoking decisions of early adults in Mexico. Using rich data from the Mexican Family Life Survey, I find that the schooling effects on female smoking vanish after differences in family background, time preferences and other commonly unobserved variables are controlled for. Conversely, the schooling effects on male smoking remain. Hence, a natural experiment coming from a recent school expansion program is used to test, for the first time in the developing context, whether schooling induces healthier behaviours among men. Within each state, I exploit variations across cohorts in new junior high school classroom openings between 1990 and 1999 to construct an instrument for schooling. Preliminary results suggest that the junior high school expansion was associated with higher schooling achievement, particularly in rural areas. The results also indicate that returns to schooling include less smoking among Mexican men. This implies that conventional estimates of the returns to education that focus only on wages understate the total benefits of human capital accumulation.

Key Terms

Smoking, schooling, IV, Mexico

Authors:

Mabel Andalón (The University of Melbourne. Economics)

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