The effects of summer heat on academic achievement: A cohort analysis

Hyunkuk Cho

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2017, vol. 83, issue C, 185-196

Abstract: This paper analyzed the effect of summer heat on academic achievement. Summer heat can negatively affect student learning, as previous studies have shown that high temperatures in laboratory settings have a negative effect on cognitive abilities. For this analysis, the test scores of five different cohorts were combined with city-level daily temperature data. To control for unobserved heterogeneity, the test scores of students within the same school were compared over time (school-fixed effects estimation). Summer heat negatively affected student test scores. Specifically, an additional day with a maximum daily temperature exceeding 34°C (93.2°F) during the summer, relative to a day with a maximum temperature between 28°C (82.4°F) and 30°C (86°F), decreased the scores of math and English tests by 0.0042 and 0.0064 standard deviations, respectively. No significant effects were found on the reading test scores. In addition, these effects were larger in relatively cooler cities, but did not differ based on gender. Finally, the previous year's summer also had negative effects on the current year's test scores.

Keywords: Summer heat; Academic achievement; Test score; Compensatory behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069616301887
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:83:y:2017:i:c:p:185-196

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2017.03.005

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management is currently edited by M.A. Cole, A. Lange, D.J. Phaneuf, D. Popp, M.J. Roberts, M.D. Smith, C. Timmins, Q. Weninger and A.J. Yates

More articles in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().