Key to health? More education...

economics ▪ health ▪

An interesting NYT article on the link between health and education. An excerpt:

In every country, there is an average life span for the nation as a whole and there are average life spans for different subsets, based on race, geography, education and even churchgoing.

But the questions for researchers... are why? And what really matters?

The answers...have been a surprise. The one social factor that researchers agree is consistently linked to longer lives in every country where it has been studied is education. It is more important than race; it obliterates any effects of income...

[According to a research by Dr. Lleras-Muney,] life expectancy at age 35 was extended by as much as one and a half years simply by going to school for one extra year.

Thanks to Greg Mankiw for the pointer.

Now, if only the use of our education budget can increase the number of children in school...