Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
学校作息时间、睡眠与青少年行为：基于抽签分配上课时间的证据
School timing, sleep, and adolescent behavior: Evidence from lottery-assigned start times
摘要
Double-shift school systems assign some adolescents to early-morning and others to afternoon schooling, yet causal evidence on the consequences of such large timing differences remains limited. I study a selective public middle school in Argentina, where the outcome of a public lottery determines a 7:30 a.m. or 1:15 p.m. start time for up to three years. Unlike the relatively modest schedule changes studied in most prior work, the lottery shifts the school day by nearly six hours while holding curriculum, facilities, and school-day length fixed, identifying reduced-form effects of school timing. Afternoon schooling increases self-reported night sleep by nearly an hour and reduces the share sleeping at most seven hours by 34 percentage points from a 65% baseline. Boys also gain total daily sleep, whereas morning-shift girls offset their shorter nights with longer naps, leaving total daily sleep unchanged. These differences largely disappear before non-school days. Behavioral responses diverge sharply by gender: afternoon assignment reduces boys’ aggressive or delinquent behavior, especially vandalism, but increases girls’ substance use initiation. Together with changes in extracurricular and social activities, these contrasting responses caution against interpreting school timing through a single channel such as sleep. In double-shift systems, school timing is thus a behavioral design choice, not merely a capacity tool.
中文摘要
双班制学校体系将部分青少年安排在清晨上课，另一些安排在下午上课，然而关于如此大的时间差异所带来后果的因果证据仍然有限。我研究了阿根廷一所择优录取的公立初中，该校通过公开抽签的结果决定学生最长三年内是早上7：30还是下午1：15开始上课。与大多数先前研究中相对温和的作息变化不同，该抽签将近乎六小时的学校日程偏移，同时保持课程、设施和在校时长不变，从而识别出学校上课时间的简约式效应。下午上课使自我报告的夜间睡眠增加近一小时，并将睡眠至多七小时的比例从65%的基线降低34个百分点。男生还获得了每日总睡眠的增加，而早班女生则用更长的午睡来弥补较短的夜间睡眠，使每日总睡眠保持不变。这些差异在上学日之前基本消失。行为反应因性别而显著分化：被分配到下午上课减少了男生的攻击性或违法行为，尤其是破坏公物行为，但增加了女生的物质使用起始行为。结合课外活动和社会活动的变化，这些截然不同的反应提醒人们不要通过单一渠道（如睡眠）来解读学校上课时间。因此，在双班制体系中，学校上课时间是一种行为设计选择，而不仅仅是容量工具。