The international epidemiological transition and the education gender gap

We explore the impact of the international epidemiological transition on educational attainment of males and females over the second half of the twentieth century. Using an instrumental variables strategy that exploits pre-existing variation in mortality rates across infectious diseases and gender differences in the responsiveness to the method of disease control, we document that health improvements associated with the transition led to larger gains in life expectancy for females due to their stronger immune response to vaccination. These relative gains were associated with greater increases in the educational attainment of females compared to males and account for a large share of the reduction in the education gender gap that took place over this period.