The effects of parental education on male mortality: evidence from the first wave of compulsory schooling laws
利用1940年美国人口普查与社会保障死亡记录，以1875-1912年义务教育法为工具变量，发现父亲多受一年教育可使儿子寿命延长5.6个月，并通过提升儿子教育和职业地位实现。
This paper investigates the causal impact of fathers' education on sons' longevity by linking the full count 1940 US census to Social Security Administration death records and using the first wave of compulsory schooling laws from 1875 to 1912 as instruments for education. OLS estimates suggest small protective effects-conditional on children surviving until age 35, an extra year of fathers' education increases sons' age at death by 0.75 months. IV estimates are substantially larger, with an extra year of a father's education increasing his son's age at death by 5.6 months. We also find that an extra year of fathers' education increases sons' education by 0.22 years, conditional on children surviving till 16 years. This suggests that intergenerational transmission of human capital is a channel linking fathers' education to children's longevity. In addition, we find significant improvements in sons' occupational status associated with higher paternal education, indicating that occupational mobility is another important pathway through which parental education improves long-term health and longevity. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00148-025-01134-y.