Working Paper: NBER ID: w16673
Authors: Patricia M. Anderson; Kristin F. Butcher; Elizabeth U. Cascio; Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach
Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the impact of attending school on body weight and obesity. We use school starting age cutoff dates to compare weight outcomes for similar age children with different years of school exposure. As is the case with academic outcomes, school exposure is related to unobserved determinants of weight outcomes because some families choose to have their child start school late (or early). If one does not account for this endogeneity, it appears that an additional year of school exposure results in a greater BMI and a higher probability of being overweight or obese. When actual exposure is instrumented with expected exposure based on school starting dates and birthday, the significant positive effects disappear, and most point estimates become negative and insignificant. However, for children not eating the school lunch, there is a significant negative effect on the probability of being overweight.
Keywords: Childhood Obesity; School Exposure; BMI; Instrumental Variables
JEL Codes: I12; I21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| endogeneity of school starting decisions (I21) | overestimation of positive effects of school exposure on BMI (I24) |
| endogeneity of school starting decisions (I21) | overestimation of positive effects of school exposure on probability of being overweight or obese (I24) |
| OLS estimates (L00) | biased results regarding school exposure effects (I24) |
| school exposure (I24) | BMI (I12) |
| school exposure (I24) | probability of being overweight or obese (I14) |
| school exposure (not participating in school lunch program) (I24) | probability of being overweight (C46) |
| school starting age (I21) | school exposure (I24) |