Do Cognition And Health Affect Children’s Education Level?

As one of the important components of individual human capital,education has an important and far-reaching impact on one’s future development.Raising the education level of children and reducing their dropout rate is conducive to improving the overall quality of workers,so as to cultivate high-quality workers,raise income level,improve the living conditions of workers and help them get rid of poverty,which is of great significance to improving China’s cultural soft power and comprehensive national strength.Based on the research conducted by the website of "Young Lives" of Oxford University,this paper conducts four rounds of investigation(2002,2006,2009 and 2013)on more than 3,000 teenagers and children in India and Peru,and collects information about children,families and schools.Through the comprehensive use of literature research method,empirical research method,qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis,cross research method,case study method and other scientific research methods,we try to explore the impact of children’s cognitive levels on their education level and children’s health status on their education level.According to the literature,there is a correlation between children’s cognition and their education level:Children with higher cognitive levels tend to be more educated;Conversely,higher levels of education can improve children’s cognitive skills.There is also a correlation between health status and children’s level of education:Healthy children tend to have higher levels of education than children with health problems;Conversely,the higher the level of education,the more able children are to use knowledge to protect their health.Based on the reverse causality effect,it can be seen that if the ordinary least square method is used to establish the regression model for the above problems,there will be endogenous problems,leading to the inconsistency of parameter estimation.Therefore,this paper uses the two-stage least square method to establish the instrumental variable regression model to solve this problem.In order to find a good instrumental variable that can satisfy the two conditions of exogenicity and correlation of instrumental variables at the same time,this paper innovatively finds that the birth weight of children has a certain influence on their cognitive level and health level,and considers it as an instrumental variable for empirical analysis and research.On this basis,we put forward four hypotheses,and then use instrumental variable regression method for the empirical analysis.After controlling for variables at the national level(country,WGI),individual level(sex,age in months,school type)and family level(household size,father’s education level,mother’s education level),we find that the model regression estimation coefficient is still significant,and then we perform exogenous test,weak instrumental variable test and endogenous test to judge whether the instrumental variables are valid,and finally use the generalized method of moments to test the robustness of the results of the two-stage least squares method.It turns out that the regression results obtained by the two methods are basically the same whether it is the coefficient of the variable or the level of robustnessWe come to the final conclusions:1.The heavier the child’s birth weight,the higher the cognitive level,and there is a positive correlation between the two;2.The heavier the child is at birth,the better his health status is,and there is a positive correlation between the two;3.Cognitive level has a positive effect on children’s education level.The higher the cognitive level,the higher the education level of children;4.The health level has a positive effect on the education level of children,and the healthier the child is,the higher his education level is.In view of the significant impact of children’s birth weight on their future education level through cognition and health,the following policy suggestions are proposed:Appropriately reduce the cost of pregnancy check-ups and prenatal check-ups,and encourage regular check-ups for pregnant women;Establish nutrition subsidy programs to improve pregnant women’s intrauterine nutrition;Strengthen publicity,education and guidance to help scientific preparations for pregnancy and childbirth.We should focus on appropriately raising the birth weight of the fetus from the early stage of development,hoping to improve its cognition and health,support the higher level of education,effectively improve human capital,improve the education level of the whole society,and then enhance the overall national strength and advance the process of building our socialist cultural power.