Does college education reduce the risk of schizophrenia? Evidence from a college enrollment expansion policy in China

Background: Schizophrenia occurs worldwide, and the health, and economic burden is substantial. As one of the common proxies of socioeconomic status (SES), education was reported to be associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia. However, there is no causal evidence about the relationship. This paper explores the health benefits of college education for schizophrenia. Method: Based on exogenous variation in college enrollment across regions and cohorts induced by college enrollment expansion policy, we use instrument variable (IV) estimate strategy to estimate impacts of college education on the risk of schizophrenia with the data from Second National Sample Survey on Disability. Results: We find that college education reduces the risk of developing schizophrenia by 4.2 percentage points. Some further analyses suggest the causal protective effect is only found among men, rural, and low-income individuals. Conclusions: These findings provide new evidence for the causal relationship between college education and schizophrenia, and add to the literature on the health benefits of education.