Seminar in Empirical Microeconomics: (...) Identifying sensitive periods for the formation of socio-emotional skills
Time
Thursday, 10. February 2022
12:00 - 13:15
Location
D434
Organizer
Chair of Economic Policy
Speaker:
Daniel Kamhöfer (DICE)
The right timing matters: Identifying sensitive periods for the formation of socio-emotional skills
(joint with Laura Breitkopf, Shyamal Chowdhury, Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch und Matthias Sutter)
Abstract: In a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with about 3,200 children in grades 2 to 5 in Bangladesh we examine the existence of sensitive periods in the formation of socio-emotional skills. In sensitive periods, returns to investments into skills are particularly high. Using a novel design for identifying sensitive periods, we implement the same intervention in different school grades to study its age-specific treatment effects on children's prosociality, patience, and self-control. Our results identify sensitive periods in the formation of patience and self-control around the ages 7 and 8, while prosociality appears to be similarly malleable throughout ages 7 to 11.