IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nathum/v5y2021i1d10.1038_s41562-020-00959-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Learning is inhibited by heat exposure, both internationally and within the United States

Author

Listed:
  • R. Jisung Park

    (University of California)

  • A. Patrick Behrer

    (Stanford University)

  • Joshua Goodman

    (Boston University)

Abstract

Human capital generally, and cognitive skills specifically, play a crucial role in determining economic mobility and macroeconomic growth. While elevated temperatures have been shown to impair short-run cognitive performance, much less is known about whether heat exposure affects the rate of skill formation. We combine standardized achievement data for 58 countries and 12,000 US school districts with detailed weather and academic calendar information to show that the rate of learning decreases with an increase in the number of hot school days. These results provide evidence that climatic differences may contribute to differences in educational achievement both across countries and within countries by socioeconomic status and that may have important implications for the magnitude and functional form of climate damages in coupled human–natural systems.

Suggested Citation

  • R. Jisung Park & A. Patrick Behrer & Joshua Goodman, 2021. "Learning is inhibited by heat exposure, both internationally and within the United States," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 19-27, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:5:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41562-020-00959-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-00959-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00959-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41562-020-00959-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:5:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41562-020-00959-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.