Academic achievement and positive leisure activities are traditionally considered significant determinants of economic growth and human capital accumulation. This paper estimates the impact of physical activity on academic outcome and time allocation to 25 different types of leisure activity by Chinese adolescents. We use structural equation models (SEM) to explore the channels of this transmission. Our results suggest that physical exercise not only exerts a positive direct effect on academic outcome but also increases (decreases) students’ time devoted to activities that are positively (negatively) correlated with academic outcome. All the effects are statistically significant but modest at the individual level. Our findings are robust to different measures of exercise frequency and academic outcome indicators based on student’s self-assessment, academic scores and cognitive tests

Jing Guan and J.D. Tena

No 202009, Working Papers from University of Liverpool, Department of Economics

Keywords: Structural equation models; leisure-time activities; academic performance; cognition; physical activity; instrumental variables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-gen
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:liv:livedp:202009

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