Does College Selectivity Reduce Obesity? A Partial Identification Approach

Abstract

We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Healthto investigate whether the quality of tertiary education ‐measured by collegeselectivity‐causally affects obesity prevalence in the medium run (by age 24–34)and in the longer run (about 10 years later). We use partial identificationmethods, which allow us, while relying on weak assumptions, to overcome thepotential endogeneity of college selectivity as well as the potential violation of thestable unit treatment value assumption due to students interacting with eachother, and to obtain informative identification regions for the average treatmenteffect of college selectivity on obesity. We find that attending a more selectivecollege causally reduces obesity, both in the medium and in the longer run. Weprovide evidence that the mechanisms through which the impact of collegeselectivity on obesity operates include an increase in income, a reduction inphysical inactivity and in the consumption of fast food and sweetened drinks.