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Winter weather on exam dates and matriculation for a prestigious university in Japan

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  • Suzuki, Mizuhiro

Abstract

Whereas there are growing numbers of studies on how heat affects cognitive performance at high-stakes settings, the effect of cold weather has been less studied. To fill this gap, I analyze the effects of winter weather on exam dates on performance at the centralized exam for university admission in Japan. Since students take the exam in their own prefectures, they are exposed to different weather conditions on the exam dates. I find that low temperature and snow cumulated on the ground reduce matriculation shares for the most prestigious university in Japan, the University of Tokyo. This result suggests that the winter weather on exam dates worsens exam performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Suzuki, Mizuhiro, 2024. "Winter weather on exam dates and matriculation for a prestigious university in Japan," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:237:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524001149
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111631
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Marshall Burke & Solomon M. Hsiang & Edward Miguel, 2015. "Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production," Nature, Nature, vol. 527(7577), pages 235-239, November.
    2. Baek-Min Kim & Seok-Woo Son & Seung-Ki Min & Jee-Hoon Jeong & Seong-Joong Kim & Xiangdong Zhang & Taehyoun Shim & Jin-Ho Yoon, 2014. "Weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex by Arctic sea-ice loss," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Graff Zivin, Joshua & Song, Yingquan & Tang, Qu & Zhang, Peng, 2020. "Temperature and high-stakes cognitive performance: Evidence from the national college entrance examination in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    4. Melo, Ana Paula & Suzuki, Mizuhiro, 2019. "The effects of heat on cognitive performance: Evidence from a high-stake exam in Brazil," 2019 Annual Meeting, July 21-23, Atlanta, Georgia 290980, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Cho, Hyunkuk, 2017. "The effects of summer heat on academic achievement: A cohort analysis," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 185-196.
    6. Anthony Heyes & Soodeh Saberian, 2019. "Temperature and Decisions: Evidence from 207,000 Court Cases," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 238-265, April.
    7. Kawaguchi, Daiji & Ma, Wenjie, 2008. "The causal effect of graduating from a top university on promotion: Evidence from the University of Tokyo's 1969 admission freeze," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 184-196, April.
    8. Burke, Marshall & Hsiang, Solomon M & Miguel, Edward, 2015. "Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt3g72r0zv, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
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    Cited by:

    1. Costa, Francisco J M & Goldemberg, Diana, 2024. "Too Hot to Learn? Evidence from High School Dropouts in Brazil," OSF Preprints apu6j, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Temperature; Education; University matriculation; Cognitive performance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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