Titelaufnahme

We examine the effects of a major national schooling reform in Denmark in 1903, opening up access to secondary and higher education for poorer and for female children, on mortality, using individual-level records of Danish twins. We digitized education out-comes from historical registers and augmented these with data we digitized on parental socioeconomic status. The study design is combined with an exogenous indicator of economic conditions at birth to investigate whether education mitigates mortality effects of adverse conditions at birth. We find that the reform reduces mortality rates among males, notably those with a middle-class family background. Also, secondary education is less beneficial if conditions at birth are adverse. In general, the reform effect does not seem to be driven by improved information on healthy living but rather by a shift in social classes among the inflow into higher education.