ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes that education develops habits, skills, resources, and abilities that enable people to achieve a better life. It explains human capital theory beyond the economic concerns of productivity and wages to individual health. The book suggests that education enables people to coalesce health-producing behaviors into a coherent lifestyle, and that a sense of control over outcomes in one's own life encourages a healthy lifestyle and conveys much of education's effect. According to a human-capital perspective of learned effectiveness, education indicates the accumulated knowledge, skills, and resources acquired in school. Education gives people the resources to control and shape their own lives in a way that protects and fosters health. Socioeconomic status has four main components that can affect health: education, employment, work, and economic status. Educational attainment is a root cause of good health.
