Mass vaccination and educational attainment: Evidence from the 1967-68 Measles Eradication Campaign

We show that the first nationwide mass vaccination campaign against measles increased educational attainment in the United States. Our empirical strategy exploits variation in exposure to the childhood disease across states right before the Measles Eradication Campaign of 1967-68, which reduced repo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health economics 2023-12, Vol.92, p.102828, Article 102828
Main Authors: Barteska, Philipp, Dobkowitz, Sonja, Olkkola, Maarit, Rieser, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We show that the first nationwide mass vaccination campaign against measles increased educational attainment in the United States. Our empirical strategy exploits variation in exposure to the childhood disease across states right before the Measles Eradication Campaign of 1967-68, which reduced reported measles incidence by 90 percent within two years. Our results suggest that mass vaccination against measles increased the years of education on average by about 0.1 years in the affected cohorts. We also find tentative evidence that the college graduation rate of men increased.
ISSN:0167-6296
1879-1646
1879-1646
DOI:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2023.102828