Hotter Days, Wider Gap: The Distributional Impact of Heat on Student Achievement

Mika Akesaka () and Hitoshi Shigeoka ()
Additional contact information
Mika Akesaka: Kobe University
Hitoshi Shigeoka: University of Tokyo

No 18165, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This study demonstrates that heat disproportionately impairs human capital accumulation among low-performing students compared with their high-performing peers, using nationwide examination data from 22 million students in Japan. Given the strong correlation between academic performance and socioeconomic background, this suggests that heat exposure exacerbates pre-existing socioeconomic disparities among children. However, access to air conditioning in schools significantly mitigates these adverse effects across all achievement levels, with particularly pronounced benefits for lower-performing students. These findings suggest that public investment in school infrastructure can help reduce the unevenly distributed damage caused by heat to student learning, thereby promoting both efficiency and equity.

Keywords: air conditioning; adaptation; student achievement; distributional impact; heat; children; climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I24 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp18165.pdf (application/pdf)

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:iza:izadps:dp18165

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().