Examining the Causal Effect of Education on Tobacco Use in China

• In Event: 53.078 - Social Consequences of Educational Inequality: International Perspectives

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the education effect on adult tobacco use in China is causal. By using data from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), I employ two-stage least square (2SLS) technique to draw the causal inference between educational attainment and individuals smoking behaviors. The first Compulsory Education Law in China enacted in early 1986 is used as the instrumental variable. The results show that although logistic regression analysis confirms the presence of the saliently negative relationship between individuals years of schooling and smoking status, no causality in such relationship is found in the analyzed sample through a two-stage least square approach. Therefore, the argument of the causal effect of education on population health still needs to be processed with caution.

Author

• Tian Fu, Capital Normal University