The Roles of High School Completion and GED Receipt in Smoking and Obesity
利用1979年全国青年纵向调查数据，分析高中毕业和GED证书对吸烟和肥胖行为的影响，发现高中毕业可能减少吸烟，但GED的健康回报较小，且高中毕业与肥胖减少关系不大。
We analyze data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 on high school completion, smoking, and obesity. First, we investigate whether GED recipients differ from other high school graduates in their smoking and obesity behaviors. Second, we explore whether the relationships between schooling and these health-related behaviors are sensitive to controlling for background and ability measures. Third, we estimate instrumental variables models. Our results suggest that the returns to high school completion may include less smoking but the health returns to GED receipt are much smaller. We find little evidence that high school completion is associated with less obesity.