Health and school dropout: uncertainty or reciprocity?

It is well known that education plays a central role in modern globalized economies, and it is a strategic strength for the knowledge-based economy. For this reason, among other determinants, early school leaving, otherwise known as dropout, contributes to hindering the development of human capital. Although in Western economies it is common practice to reach a third-level degree, in Italy the phenomenon of dropout, especially at secondary school level, is widespread. It is closely linked to the socio-economic context, which involves aspects of culture and local habits that characterize many regions of the country, specifically in the southern area. The aim of the paper is to deepen knowledge of this topic with regard to obesity as an indicator of poor physical and psychological health which, especially in recent years, has become an important issue involving increasing numbers of young people. We employed a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model in first differences to test the dynamic relationships between dropout rate, obesity, and other indicators. The study involved 20 Italian regions for the period 2004 to 2017 (the Italian National Institute of Statistics - ISTAT). The results of our analysis confirm that obesity can lead to an early abandonment of studies since it is known that overweight people are often victims of bullying and, consequently, are prompted to live in isolation.