If You Don't Snooze You Lose: Evidence on Health and Weight

Osea Giuntella and Fabrizio Mazzonna

No 9773, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Most economic models consider sleeping as a pre-determined and homogeneous constraint on individuals' time allocation neglecting its potential effects on health and human capital. Several medical studies provide evidence of important associations between sleep deprivation and health outcomes suggesting a large impact on health care systems and individual productivity. Yet, there is little causal analysis of the effects of sleep duration. This paper uses a spatial regression discontinuity design to identify the effects of sleep on health status, weight, and cognitive abilities. Our results suggest that delaying morning work schedules and school start times may have non-negligible effects on health.

Keywords: regression discontinuity; time use; sleep deprivation; obesity; health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 I12 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2016-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-lma and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Journal of Health Economics,2019, 65: 210-226

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