Long lasting health effects of Soviet education

Costa-Font, Joan ORCID: 0000-0001-7174-7919 and Nicińska, Anna (2025) Long lasting health effects of Soviet education. Economica. ISSN 0013-0427 (In Press)

Text (Communist_Education_and_Later_Life_Health) - Accepted Version Pending embargo until 1 January 2100. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (4MB)

Abstract

Education systems serve various purposes, including the enhancement of later-life health, though its effect can differ by socio-political regime. This paper examines the effects of exposure to communist education, which exposed children to a distinct curriculum and ideological content, on later-life health. We exploit a novel dataset that collects information on compulsory education reforms in several European countries, with different cohorts exposed and unexposed to Soviet communist education. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) design, we show that while the extension of compulsory education improved some relevant measures of health, communist education encompassed an additional health-enhancing effect. We document that the effect remains robust when using staggered DiD approaches and various robustness tests, and that it is explained by the priority given to physical education in school curricula, together with an increased likelihood of marriage.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Health Policy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HX Socialism. Communism. Anarchism L Education R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
JEL classification:	I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health P - Economic Systems > P3 - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions > P36 - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics; Health, Education and Training, Welfare, and Poverty
Date Deposited:	08 Dec 2025 12:54
Last Modified:	08 Dec 2025 16:51
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/130480

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