The effect of life expectancy on education and population dynamics

Abstract

The demographic transition represents a critical turning point for population dynamics and economic development. As a consequence, the effects of life expectancy on education and population dynamics are expected to change across different stages of demographic development. This paper tests this hypothesis empirically by exploiting exogenous within-country reductions in mortality as a result of the epidemiological transition after 1940 that have been applied in recent studies on the causal effects of life expectancy for income growth. The results document a pronounced heterogeneity, and relevant non-linearities, of the effects of life expectancy on schooling and population dynamics at different stages of the demographic transition.