Three Essays in Economics of Education and Economic History

This dissertation consists of three essays in Economics of Education and Economic History. The first essay “Disentangling the Effects of Education on Health: A Sibling-pair Analysis” examines the causal effect of education on long-run physical health, using survey data on matched siblings. The second chapter “Good Bye Chiang Kai-shek? The Long-Lasting Effects of Education under the Authoritarian Regime in Taiwan” analyzes whether experiencing an authoritarian regime at an early age have long-lasting effects on people’s political outcomes, such as political attitudes, voting behavior, and national identity? The third chapter “Quantity-Quality Trade-off in Northeast China during the Qing Dynasty” paints a detailed picture of how, in the absence of an industrialization process, the regional popularization of education shaped the trade-off between human capital and fertility decisions in Northeast China during the Qing Dynasty.