Anne Case and Angus Deaton out with another great paper.

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1_Case-Deaton_unembargoed.pdf

They look at the startling divergence on life expectancy for those with college degrees and those without college degrees. It builds on their previous work on deaths of despair.

The gap emerged from three phases. From 1992 to 2010, both groups saw decreasing mortality, but those with college degrees saw greater declines in mortality. From 2010 to 2019, those with college degrees continued to see declines in mortality while those without saw increases in mortality. And from 2019 to 2021 where mortality increased for both groups due to the pandemic, but greater for those without degrees.

The gap isn't just among men, but also women, and not just among white people, but other racial groups. On health, gaps appear not just on deaths of despair measures, but morbidity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. And mirrors gaps on other well-being measures like social isolation, marriage, family income, and wealth.

What's interesting here too is that education has become a fairly strong marker of political affiliation in recent years with those with college degrees more likely to be Democratic and those without more likely to be Republican. As Case and Deaton briefly note in the paper some laws passed by Republican-controlled legislatures differentially hurt working-class Americans which can in turn harm their health.