For better or worse? – The Effects of Physical Education on Child Development

Michael Knaus, Michael Lechner and Anne K. Reimers ()

No 1801, Economics Working Paper Series from University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science

Abstract: This study analyzes the effects of regular physical education at school on cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, motor skills, physical activity, and health. It is based on a very informative data set, the German Motorik-Modul, and identifies the effect by using variation in the required numbers of physical education lessons across and within German federal states. The results show improvements in cognitive skills. Boys’ non-cognitive skills are adversely affected driven by increased peer relation problems. For girls, the results suggest improvements in motor skills and increased extra-curricular physical activities. Generally, we find no statistically significant effects on health parameters.

Keywords: Physical education; cognitive skills; non-cognitive skills; motor skills; physical activity; health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I26 Z28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 96 pages
Date: 2018-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://ux-tauri.unisg.ch/RePEc/usg/econwp/EWP-1801.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: For better or worse? – The effects of physical education on child development (2020)
Working Paper: For Better or Worse? The Effects of Physical Education on Child Development (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:usg:econwp:2018:01

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