Does Less Education Harm Health? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in a Developing Country

We investigate the effects on health outcomes resulting from a reduction in years of schooling in Egypt in 1988, a policy change that moves in the opposite direction in relation to the extant literature. We exploit this policy change as a natural experiment and employ a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to investigate a wide range of objectively measured health outcomes and behaviors. Despite the policy’s adverse effect on years of schooling and students’ ability to complete educational milestones, there is no effect on any of the health outcomes. Our results (or lack thereof) add to the complexity and nuance of the findings in the literature that is focused on the effect of increasing compulsory schooling (or school leaving age), particularly in developing countries.