Influencia de los Programas Universitarios para Mayores sobre la mejora del rendimiento cognitivo y el nivel de satisfacción con la vida

Résumé

The aim of this paper is to apply a rigorous econometric approach to analyze the benefits derived from participation in Third Age University Programs (3AUP). Two waves from the SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) corresponding to 2007 and 2011 are used. This survey contains information concerning the degree of satisfaction with life and allows to define indicators for cognitive achievement in memory, vocabulary fluency and mathematics. For the sample of all respondents we appreciate that: (i) the probability of remembering between 10-14 words in the memory test increases by 0.34 points for participants, (ii) the probability of experiencing a “very good” satisfaction level increases by 0.38 points for participants in 3AUP with respect to non-participants, (iii) older people or people with lower educational attainment receive the highest increase in life satisfaction conditioned on participation in 3AUP. On the other hand, for the subsample of respondents to both waves, it is possible to analyze the evolution of cognitive performance and life satisfaction between 2007 and 2011. Main results show that, the highest probability of worsening results in memory and fluency tests corresponds to people who have never participated in 3AUP. By the contrary, those who participated in 2011 (but not in 2007) exhibit the highest increase in the probability of better life satisfaction.