<p>NYTimes article explores research conducted by a Columbia Ph. D. on the strong correlation between higher education, health, and longevity.</p>
<p>"?If you were to ask me what affects health and longevity,? says Michael Grossman, a health economist at the City University of New York, ?I would put education at the top of my list.? economists noted the correlation between education and health and gave some advice: If you want to improve health, you will get more return by investing in education than by investing in medical care…</p>
<p>But when her analysis was finished, Dr. Lleras-Muney says, ?I was surprised, I was really surprised.? It turned out that 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.</p>
<p>Her prize-winning paper appeared in Review of Economic Studies. And she ended up with a job as an assistant professor at Princeton. Now, others papers have appeared, examining the effects of changed laws on compulsory education in Sweden, Denmark, England and Wales. In every country, compelling children to spend a longer time in school led to better health.</p>
<p>?You might think that forcing someone to go to school who does not want to be there may not be the same thing as going to school because you want to,? Dr. Lleras-Muney said. ?That did not seem to be the case.?</p>
<p>Not everyone was convinced.</p>
<p>Victor Fuchs, a health economist at Stanford, points out that it is not clear how or why education would lead to a longer life.</p>
<p>And, he said, there are other mysteries. For example, women increased their years of schooling more than men have in recent decades. But men are catching up with women in their life spans.</p>
<p>And it might be expected that after a certain point, more years of school would not add to a person?s life span. That, however, is not what the data shows. The education effect never wanes. But most researchers say they are swayed by Dr. Lleras-Muney?s work and the studies in other countries. That, though, leaves the question of why the education effect occurs…</p>
<p>But education, Dr. Smith at RAND finds, may somehow teach people to delay gratification. For example, he reported that in one large federal study of middle-aged people, those with less education were less able to think ahead."</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/health/03aging.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=education&adxnnlx=1167829371-RzpZPktbCU8I+8z2l4xNEA[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/health/03aging.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=education&adxnnlx=1167829371-RzpZPktbCU8I+8z2l4xNEA</a></p>