Abstract
AbstractThis paper examines the relationship between education and health behaviours, focusing on potential offsetting responses between calories in (i.e. dietary intakes) and calories out (i.e. physical activity). It exploits the 1972 British compulsory schooling law that raised the minimum school leaving age from 15 to 16 to estimate the effects of education on diet and exercise around middle age. Using a regression discontinuity design, the findings suggest that the reform led to a worsening of the quality of the diet, with increases in total calories, fats and animal proteins. However, I find that these changes are partially offset by a discontinuous increase in physical activity. Back‐of‐the‐envelope calculations suggest little effect on the balance of calories. As such, the findings show that focusing on the two components of energy balance provides additional information that is concealed in analyses that only use a measure of obesity.
Highlights
There is a strong social gradient in health and disease, with lower socio-economic classes experiencing increased morbidity
With a standard deviation of the Nutrient Profile Score of 1.9 for cohorts born just before the cut-off, this change is similar to approximately 13% of a standard deviation
The differences between nutrient purchases of those who left education at age ≥16 and those who left before are all in the range of 1-6%, apart from proteins, where it is less than 1%
Summary
There is a strong social gradient in health and disease, with lower socio-economic classes experiencing increased morbidity. One of the main causes of this are poor dietary choices (Marmot, 2005; WHO, 2002). Given the social gradient in nutritional choices, one question is whether we can improve individuals’ diets by increasing their socio-economic status, such as education. Education can change individuals’ allocative efficiency, affecting the allocation of health inputs such as dietary choices. Education may indirectly affect health inputs by increasing earnings, which can in turn affect nutritional choices. Higher wages may increase the affordability of health-improving foods. Higher wages increase the opportunity cost of time, potentially leading to individuals increasing their consumption of (time-saving) ready meals, which tend to be less healthy.
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