The Effect of Compulsory Schooling on Vaccination Against COVID

Health Econ. 2025 Jan 1. doi: 10.1002/hec.4929. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

We study the effect of education on vaccination against COVID in Germany in a sample of individuals above the age of 60. In ordinary least squares regressions, we find that, in this age group, one more year of education goes along with a 0.7 percentage point increase in the likelihood to get a COVID vaccination. In two stage least squares regressions where changes in compulsory schooling laws are used as exogenous variation for education, the effect of an additional year of education is estimated to be zero. The results hold for the compliers to the policy change which are older individuals at the lowest margin of education.

Keywords: COVID; compulsory schooling; education; vaccination.