EDUCATION AND LIFE EXPECTANCY IN GERMANY - AN EMPIRICAL LONGITUDINAL-STUDY FROM A LIFE-HISTORY PERSPECTIVE

In this study, the causal impact of education on life expectancy is in vestigated from a life-history perspective. Compulsory school educatio n can be considered to be institutional capital for the duration of a life cycle. It contributes-together with education and training (econo mic captial) and general knowledge (cultural capital) acquired in the socialization process-to the postponement of mortality risks to the (r elatively) later stages of life. The empirical analyses in this study are based on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel an d German Life History Study for the period between 1871 and 1989. Coho rt design and methods of event history analysis are used. Controlling for relevant social determinants, in particular, social class, the rel ationship between educational inequality and inequality of life expect ancy is confirmed empirically, as is the long-term impact of education on the duration of life courses. On the one hand, increasing levels o f education have contributed to a general increase in life histories. On the other hand, however, the persistence of inter-generational ineq uality of educational attainment is responsible for variations in life expectancy according to social status and class.