Revisiting the relationship between longevity and lifetime education: global evidence from 919 surveys

Abstract The contrasting results from previous research motivate this reexamination of the longevity-schooling relationship. The study uses a different identification strategy applied to cohort-specific data from 919 household surveys conducted between 1960 and 2012 spanning 147 countries. We find a significant positive relationship between increased life expectancy at birth and lifetime completed years of schooling in 95% of the surveys and significant negative effects only in 0.3%. In addition, parents’ own longer life expectancy at birth has intergenerational benefits for their children’s schooling. The 31-year increase in life expectancy at birth worldwide for birth cohorts 1922–1987 is associated with 60–100% of the 4.8 additional years of completed schooling for those birth cohorts. These results are robust for different specifications across surveys, population groups, and world regions.

DOI: 10.1007/s00148-018-0717-9