children’s education and parental health

Associate Professor, Department of Economics, College of Arts and Sciences, University at Buffalo.

arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/economics/faculty/faculty-directory/liu-zhiqiang.html

A large empirical literature has documented a positive relationship between education and health and between parental education and children’s health, but overlooked the potential role of adultchildren’s education in affecting parental health. In this paper we estimate the effect of adult
children’s education on parental health outcomes using the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS). We find that parents of more educated children have better health, measured by a variety of health indicators, and that the relationship is causal. Using
geographic variation in proximity to school as the instrumental variable, we find that an extra year of children’s education could increase the probability of parental good health status by 4 to 8.4 percentage points. Falsification tests seem to support the IV strategy. We also find that smoking behavior, use of preventive care, and management of chronic conditions are important channels through which children’s education may improve parental health.