How the time of day affects productivity: : Evidence from school schedules

Autores: Nolan G. Pope
Localización: The Review of economics and statistics, ISSN 0034-6535, Vol. 98, Nº 1, 2016, págs. 1-11
Idioma: inglés
DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00525
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Resumen
- Increasing the efficiency of the school system is a primary focus of policymakers. I analyze howthe time of day affects students' productivity and if efficiency gains can be obtained by rearranging the order of tasks they perform throughout the school day. Using a panel data set of nearly 2 million sixth- through eleventh-grade students in Los Angeles County, I perform within-teacher, class type, and student estimation of the time-of-day effect on students' learning as measured by GPA and state test scores. I find that given a school start time, students learn more in the morning than later in the school day.Having a morning instead of afternoon math or English class increases a student's GPA by 0.072 (0.006) and 0.032 (0.006), respectively. A morning math class increases state test scores by an amount equivalent to increasing teacher quality by one-fourth standard deviation or half of the gender gap. Rearranging school schedules can lead to increased academic performance.