MORTALITY AND MORBIDITY RISKS AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR
研究认为青年期高死亡或疾病风险会减少人力资本投资，但因果推断困难。本文利用亨廷顿病患者的遗传风险数据，发现死亡与疾病风险与人力资本投资呈强负相关。
There are theoretical reasons to expect that high risk of mortality or morbidity during young adulthood decreases investment in human capital. However, investigation of this hypothesis is complicated by a variety of empirical challenges, including difficulties in inferring causation due to omitted variables and reverse causation. For example, to compare two groups with substantially different mortality rates, one typically has to use samples from different countries or periods, making it difficult to control for other relevant variables. Reverse causation is important because human capital investment can affect mortality and morbidity. To counter these problems, we collected data on human capital investments, fertility decisions, and other economic choices of people at risk for Huntington's disease. Huntington's disease is a fatal genetic disorder that introduces a large and exogenous risk of early mortality and morbidity. We find a strong negative relation between mortality and morbidity risks and human capital investment.