IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/17720.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Providing Breakfast on Student Performance: Evidence from an In-Class Breakfast Program

Author

Listed:
  • Scott A. Imberman
  • Adriana D. Kugler

Abstract

In response to low take-up, many public schools have experimented with moving breakfast from the cafeteria to the classroom. We examine whether such a program increases performance as measured by standardized test scores, grades and attendance rates. We exploit quasi-random timing of program implementation that allows for a difference-in-differences identification strategy. Our main identification assumption is that schools where the program was introduced earlier would have evolved similarly to those where the program was introduced later. We find that in-class breakfast increases both math and reading achievement by about one-tenth of a standard deviation relative to providing breakfast in the cafeteria. Moreover, we find that these effects are most pronounced for low performing, free-lunch eligible, Hispanic, and low BMI students. We also find some improvements in attendance for high achieving students but no impact on grades.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott A. Imberman & Adriana D. Kugler, 2012. "The Effect of Providing Breakfast on Student Performance: Evidence from an In-Class Breakfast Program," NBER Working Papers 17720, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17720
    Note: CH ED EH LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17720.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Harold Alderman & John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2006. "Long term consequences of early childhood malnutrition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(3), pages 450-474, July.
    2. Jayanta Bhattacharya & Janet Currie & Steven J. Haider, 2006. "Breakfast of Champions?: The School Breakfast Program and the Nutrition of Children and Families," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(3).
    3. Angrist, Joshua D. & Krueger, Alan B., 1999. "Empirical strategies in labor economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 23, pages 1277-1366, Elsevier.
    4. Patricia M. Anderson & Kristin F. Butcher, 2006. "Reading, Writing, and Refreshments: Are School Finances Contributing to Children’s Obesity?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(3).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bose, Udichibarna & MacDonald, Ronald & Tsoukas, Serafeim, 2019. "Policy initiatives and firms' access to external finance: Evidence from a panel of emerging Asian economies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 162-184.
    2. Bose, Udichibarna & Filomeni, Stefano & Mallick, Sushanta, 2021. "Does bankruptcy law improve the fate of distressed firms? The role of credit channels," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Bose, Udichibarna & Mallick, Sushanta & Tsoukas, Serafeim, 2020. "Does easing access to foreign financing matter for firm performance?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Bose, Udichibarna & MacDonald, Ronald & Tsoukas, Serafeim, 2015. "Policy initiatives and firms' access to external finance: Evidence from a panel of emerging Asian economies," 2007 Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, 2007, Portland, Oregon TN 2015-65, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    5. Udichibarna Bose & Ronald McDonald & Serafeim Tsoukas, 2016. "Policy initiatives and Örmsíaccess to external finance: Evidence from a panel of emerging Asian economies," Working Papers 2016_18, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    6. Leos-Urbel, Jacob & Schwartz, Amy Ellen & Weinstein, Meryle & Corcoran, Sean, 2013. "Not just for poor kids: The impact of universal free school breakfast on meal participation and student outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 88-107.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Borbely & Markus Gehrsitz & Stuart McIntyre & Gennaro Rossi, 2022. "Does the Provision of Universal Free School Meals Improve School Attendance and Behaviour?," Working Papers 22-5, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
    2. Daniel L. Millimet & Rusty Tchernis & Muna Husain, 2010. "School Nutrition Programs and the Incidence of Childhood Obesity," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(3).
    3. Lichtman-Sadot, Shirlee, 2016. "Does banning carbonated beverages in schools decrease student consumption?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 30-50.
    4. Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, 2009. "Do School Lunches Contribute to Childhood Obesity?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(3).
    5. Deokrye Baek & Yongjun Choi & Hong Lee, 2019. "Universal Welfare May Be Costly: Evidence from School Meal Programs and Student Fitness in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, March.
    6. Linnemayr, Sebastian & Alderman, Harold, 2011. "Almost random: Evaluating a large-scale randomized nutrition program in the presence of crossover," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 106-114, September.
    7. Frisvold, David E., 2015. "Nutrition and cognitive achievement: An evaluation of the School Breakfast Program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 91-104.
    8. David Frisvold & Joseph Price, 2019. "The Contribution of the School Environment to the Overall Food Environment Experienced by Children," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(1), pages 106-123, July.
    9. Singh, Prakarsh & Masters, William A., 2016. "Behavior Change for Early Childhood Nutrition: Effectiveness of Health Worker Training Depends on Maternal Information in a Randomized Control Trial," IZA Discussion Papers 10375, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Godoy, Ricardo & Reyes-Garcia, Victoria & Huanca, Tomas & Tanner, Susan & Leonard, William R. & McDade, Thomas & Vadez, Vincent, 2005. "Do smiles have a face value? Panel evidence from Amazonian Indians," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 469-490, August.
    11. Peter Egger & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2004. "Foreign Direct Investment and European Integration in the 1990s," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 99-110, January.
    12. John Abowd & Martha Stinson, 2011. "Estimating Measurement Error in SIPP Annual Job Earnings: A Comparison of Census Bureau Survey and SSA Administrative Data," Working Papers 11-20, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    13. Belot, Michèle & James, Jonathan, 2011. "Healthy school meals and educational outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 489-504, May.
    14. Mahmud, Mahreen & Riley, Emma, 2021. "Household response to an extreme shock: Evidence on the immediate impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on economic outcomes and well-being in rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    15. Marta Favara & Catherine Porter & Tassew Woldehanna, 2019. "Smarter through social protection? Evaluating the impact of Ethiopia’s safety-net on child cognitive abilities," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 79-96, January.
    16. Fabian T C Schmidt & Clemens M Lechner & Daniel Danner, 2020. "New wine in an old bottle? A facet-level perspective on the added value of Grit over BFI–2 Conscientiousness," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-25, February.
    17. François Gardes, 2021. "Endogenous Prices in a Riemannian Geometry Framework," Post-Print halshs-03325414, HAL.
    18. Futoshi Yamauchi & Yanyan Liu, 2013. "Impacts of an Early Stage Education Intervention on Students' Learning Achievement: Evidence from the Philippines," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(2), pages 208-222, February.
    19. Martin Schlotter & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann, 2011. "Econometric methods for causal evaluation of education policies and practices: a non-technical guide," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 109-137.
    20. Michael Lechner & Ruth Miquel & Conny Wunsch, 2011. "Long‐Run Effects Of Public Sector Sponsored Training In West Germany," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 742-784, August.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:17720. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.