This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. August 2013
  5. Limited Life Expectancy, Human Capital and Health Investments

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Limited Life Expectancy, Human Capital and Health Investments

  • Emily Oster
  • Ira Shoulson
  • E. Ray Dorsey
American Economic Review
vol. 103, no. 5, August 2013
(pp. 1977–2002)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

Human capital theory predicts that life expectancy will impact human capital attainment. We estimate this relationship using variation in life expectancy driven by Huntington disease, an inherited neurological disorder. We compare investments for individuals who have ex-ante identical risks of HD but differ in disease realization. Individuals with the HD mutation complete less education and job training. The elasticity of demand for college attendance with respect to life expectancy is around 1.0. We relate this to cross-country and over-time differences in education. We use smoking and cancer screening data to test the corollary that health capital responds to life expectancy.

Citation

Oster, Emily, Ira Shoulson, and E. Ray Dorsey. 2013. "Limited Life Expectancy, Human Capital and Health Investments." American Economic Review, 103 (5): 1977–2002. DOI: 10.1257/aer.103.5.1977

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
  • I12 Health Production
  • I20 Education and Research Institutions: General
  • I31 General Welfare
  • J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity