English Abstract We use SHARE data from eight European countries to measure the evolution of health of middle-aged individuals over time. In contrast to earlier findings in Europe, we observe a stalling health trend for individuals of later year of birth using an index measuring health deficits....

In this paper we investigate the causal effect of years of schooling on health and health-related behavior in West Germany. We apply an instrumental variables approach using as natural experiments several changes in compulsory schooling laws between 1949 and 1969. These law changes generate...

At the age of ten German pupils are given a secondary school track recommendation which largely determines the actual track choice. Track choice has major effects on the life course, mainly through labor market outcomes. Using data from the German PISA extension study, we analyze the effect of...

This paper uses data from SHARE 2004 to analyze one possible causal pathway of the health-wealth gradient, namely differences in the marginal propensity to save and spend across different health states. Conditional on age and current wealth, I find weak relationships between health and the...

Education is arguably the most important correlate of health We study education-related inequality in the physical of older adults across 11 European countries and the US. Combining data from HRS 2002, ELSA 2002 and SHARE 2004, our results suggest that education is strongly correlated with...

We use newly available data from Germany to study the relationship between parental income and child health. We find a strong gradient between parental income and subjective child health as has been documented earlier in the US, Canada and the UK. The relationship in Germany is about as strong...

This article provides an explorative overview of the life circumstances of older Europeans in their last year of life. Using information from 526 end-of-life interviews conducted as part of the 2006-07 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we detect a high prevalence of...

Using German census data we estimate the causal effect of education on smoking and overweight/obesity using the abolition of secondary school fees as instrumental variable. The West German federal states enacted this reform at different dates after World War II generating exogenous variation in...

Using data from the Health Survey for England and the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing, we estimate the causal effect of schooling on health. Identification comes from two nation wide increases in British compulsory school leaving age in 1947 and 1973, respectively. Our study complements...

German Abstract: Wir nutzen Daten von 90% der deutschen Bevölkerung um den langfristigen Zusammenhang zwischen intrauteriner Mangelernährung nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und 16 ärztlich diagnostizierten Krankheiten im Alter von 60 bis 70 Jahren zu untersuchen. Dabei stellen wir ein erhöhtes...