Schooling and Youth Mortality : Learning from a Mass Military Exemption

Cipollone, Piero ; Rosolia, Alfonso

关键词: ADULT EMPLOYMENT;    ADULT HEALTH;    ADULT MORTALITY;    ADULT POPULATION;    ADULTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5680
RP-ID  :  WPS5680

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper examines the relationshipbetween education and mortality in a young population ofItalian males. In 1981 several cohorts of young men fromspecific southern towns were unexpectedly exempted fromcompulsory military service after a major quake hit theregion. Comparisons of exempt cohorts from the least damagedtowns on the border of the quake region with similar onesfrom neighbouring non-exempt towns just outside the regionshow that, by 1991, the cohorts exempted while still in highschool display significantly higher graduation rates. Theprobability of dying over the decade 1991-2001 was alsosignificantly lower. Several robustness checks confirm thatthe findings do not reflect omitted quake-relatedconfounding factors, such as the ensuing compensatoryinterventions. Moreover, cohorts exempted soon after highschool age do not display higher schooling or lowermortality rates, thus excluding that the main findingsreflect direct effects of military service on subsequentmortality rather than a causal effect of schooling. Theauthors conclude that increasing the proportion of highschool graduates by 1 percentage point leads to 0.1-0.2percentage points lower mortality rates between the ages of25 and 35.