The Secret of Long Life: Stay in School!

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From The New York Times:

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.

Year after year, in study after study, says Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, education “keeps coming up.”

And, health economists say, those factors that are popularly believed to be crucial — money and health insurance, for example, pale in comparison.

Dr. Smith explains: “Giving people more Social Security income, or less for that matter, will not really affect people’s health. It is a good thing to do for other reasons but
not for health.”

Health insurance, too, he says, “is vastly overrated in the policy debate.”

Instead, Dr. Smith and others say, what may make the biggest difference is keeping young people in school. A few extra years of school is associated with extra years of life and vastly improved health decades later, in old age.

Greg Mankiw writes:

The article is particularly good at explaining how studies handle the identification problem. That is, researchers have worked hard to disentangle correlation and causation. The results indicate that education has a causal impact on health.

Tyler Cowen adds:

The main point of the article is that education is strongly correlated with better health outcomes, although the author too quickly assumes a causal connection.  For instance education may signal rather than cause low time preference and thus responsible behavior.  In a slightly different health context, here is Jane Galt on causation vs. correlation.  Is it worse to be overweight, or not to exercise much?

Instapundit is a bit more blunt :

I'm not sure that the causal relationship is there. It may just be that idiots are more likely to drop out of school, and also to die young as a consequence of idiotic behavior. As John Wayne said, life is tough, and it's tougher when you're stupid.

My Take:

Mabye coming back for my PhD is proving more beneficial than I thought?