The Impact of Higher Education on Health Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from China

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated illness significantly damage people’s physical and mental health. Previous studies focus on the role of strong government public-health management to improve people’s health conditions. The objective of this study is to explore the specific impact of higher education on health behavior and pandemic policy, which remains relatively unexplored. Using data from the 2021 Chinese Social Survey, we employ an OLS regression to examine the effect of education on the change in health behaviors. Then, we use China’s higher education expansion as an instrumental variable to mitigate the potential endogeneity. The results reveal a positive relationship between higher education and health behaviors, both due to improved socioeconomic conditions and enhanced psychological wellbeing. Additionally, we find that the health return of higher education differs significantly between rural and urban areas, suggesting the presence of education inequality. These findings underscore the importance of higher education and individual health behavior in controlling the spread of major pandemics, emphasizing the need for public policy to consider the role of higher education in pandemic management.