Education in France during World War II and Subsequent Mortality

We investigate the link between education and health. A strong correlationbetween those two components of human capital is now well established, andthis result holds with various health measures. This study focuses on a poten-tial causality running from education to mortality. Using a French longitudinaldataset, we compute a health measure at the same given age for everyone, namelybeing still alive at 70. We follow a two-stage estimation strategy, our instrumen-tal variable exploits the fact that many French students were forced to leaveschool earlier than they wished during World War II while France was underforeign occupation. Moreover, this exogenous shock on education choices didnot happen at the same time countrywide, and we use this temporal dimensionas another source of identification.The results suggest a positive and significant impact of education on survivalat 70. While the magnitude of the effect is in line with the literature, returns toeducation are estimated more precisely than in previous studies.