How the time of day affects productivity Evidence from school schedules

• Published in: The review of economics and statistics Vol. 98; no. 1; pp. 1 - 11
• Main Author: Pope, Nolan G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge The MIT Press 01-03-2016; MIT Press Journals, The
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Arbeitsproduktivität; Learning; Los Angeles, Calif; Ländlicher Raum; Productivity measurement; School schedules; School systems; Schüler; Students; Studies; United States; Zeit; United States > US
• ISSN: 0034-6535; 1530-9142
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00525

Increasing the efficiency of the school system is a primary focus of policymakers. I analyze how the time of day affects students' productivity and if efficiency gains can be obtained by rearranging the order of tasks they perform throughout the school day. Using a panel data set of nearly 2 million sixth-through eleventh-grade students in Los Angeles County, I perform within-teacher, class type, and student estimation of the time-of-day effect on students' learning as measured by GPA and state test scores. I find that given a school start time, students learn more in the morning than later in the school day. Having a morning instead of afternoon math or English class increases a student's GPA by 0.072 (0.006) and 0.032 (0.006), respectively. A morning math class increases state test scores by an amount equivalent to increasing teacher quality by one-fourth standard deviation or half of the gender gap. Rearranging school schedules can lead to increased academic performance.