Influence of Elementary School Education and Community Environment on the Formation of Non-cognitive Abilities

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K21696
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 7:Economics, business administration, and related fields
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: OHTAKE Fumio 大阪大学, 経済学研究科, 特任教授(常勤) (50176913)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 非認知能力 / 学校教育 / 社会的選好 / 労働市場

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In Lee et al.(2021), we estimate the effects of childhood experiences of wearing school uniforms at public elementary schools in Japan on individual preferences in relation to others (hereafter, other-regarding preferences) in adulthood. The school uniform experience can be endogenous if the preferences and characteristics of the school and parents are included in the decision of schools to implement school uniforms. To examine the causal effect of school uniforms, we exploit the exogenous variation in the expansion of the apparel industry across regions, which the Japanese government used as a catalyst in stimulating the economy, as well as the regional variations in prefectural governors’ initiatives for enhancing regional profitability. We find that that the experience of school uniforms increases reciprocal inclinations and inequity aversion (prosocial) tendencies.

Free Research Field

行動経済学、労働経済学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、日本の小学校教育には、学習カリキュラム以外の教育内容に大きな地域差があること、それらが成人してからの価値観、経済的選好、感染対策に影響を与える可能性を実証的に示した。小学校における教育は、認知能力という狭い意味での学力の教育だけではなく、非認知能力と長期に渡って関わっていることを数量的に明らかにした。