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Mozart or Pelé? The effects of adolescents' participation in music and sports

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  • Cabane, Charlotte
  • Hille, Adrian
  • Lechner, Michael

Abstract

We analyse the effects of playing music, or doing sports on education and health outcomes of adolescents. After identifying adolescents who play music, do sports, or both, in the German Socio-Economic Panel, we use matching procedures to estimate causal effects. We find that playing music instead of doing sports fosters educational outcomes by about 0.1 standard deviations. Effects are stronger for girls, and for children from more highly educated families. Doing sports improves perceived health more strongly than playing music. Engaging in both activities, music and sports, improves educational outcomes by about 0.2 standard deviations and reduces smoking by about 10 percentage points compared to engaging in just one activity. Adolescents who engage in music spend less time watching TV or playing computer games, but more reading books. The robustness of the results is examined with respect to the identifying assumptions, including non-affected outcomes, a formal sensitivity analysis, and instrumental variable estimation. These checks do not reveal any serious problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Cabane, Charlotte & Hille, Adrian & Lechner, Michael, 2016. "Mozart or Pelé? The effects of adolescents' participation in music and sports," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 90-103.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:41:y:2016:i:c:p:90-103
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2016.05.012
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    2. Jonathan Daniel Gómez-Zapata & Luis César Herrero-Prieto & Beatriz Rodríguez-Prado, 2021. "Does music soothe the soul? Evaluating the impact of a music education programme in Medellin, Colombia," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 45(1), pages 63-104, March.
    3. Lechner, Michael, 2016. "Empirical Evidence on Educational Effects of Physical Activity: Four Examples," Economics Working Paper Series 1619, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    4. Guan, Jing & Tena, J.D., 2022. "Physical activity, leisure-time, cognition and academic grades: Connections and causal effects in Chinese students," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    5. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsutsui, 2017. "Trade policy preference, childhood sporting experience, and informal school curriculum: Examination from the viewpoint of behavioral economics," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 17-25, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    6. Michael C. Knaus, 2021. "A double machine learning approach to estimate the effects of musical practice on student’s skills," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 184(1), pages 282-300, January.
    7. Pfeifer Christian & Seidel Katja, 2020. "Students’ Time Allocation and School Performance: A Comparison between Student Jobs, Sports and Music Participation," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 240(5), pages 607-652, October.
    8. Dimitrios Nikolaou & Laura M. Crispin, 2022. "Estimating the effects of sports and physical exercise on bullying," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(2), pages 283-303, April.
    9. Ward, Michael R., 2018. "“Cutting class to play video games”," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 11-19.
    10. Sutter, Charlotte & Rosenberger, Wolfram & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Nudging with your child’s education. A field experiment on collecting municipal dues when enforcement is scant," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    11. Jürges, Hendrik & Khanam, Rasheda, 2021. "Adolescents’ time allocation and skill production," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child development; Leisure time activities; Matching estimation; SOEP;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z28 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - Policy
    • Z29 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - Other
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models

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