Life Expectancy and Human Capital Investments: Evidence from Maternal Mortality Declines
利用斯里兰卡1946-1953年间产妇死亡率骤降导致女孩预期寿命增加的自然实验，发现预期寿命每增加1年，女性识字率提高0.7个百分点（2%），受教育年限增加0.11年（3%），为寿命延长促进教育投资提供了因果证据。
Theory suggests that longer life expectancy encourages educational investment because a longer time horizon increases the value of investments that pay out over time. To estimate the magnitude of this effect, we examine a sudden drop in maternal mortality in Sri Lanka between 1946 and 1953, which sharply increased the life expectancy of girls. We assess whether girls' education relative to boys' increases more in areas with larger maternal mortality declines. We find that for every extra year of life expectancy, literacy increases by 0.7 percentage points (2%) and years of education increase by 0.11 years (3%).