The Effects of School Start Time on Educational Outcomes: Evidence From the 9 O’Clock Attendance Policy in South Korea

26 Pages Posted: 13 May 2018 Last revised: 22 Jun 2020

Date Written: June 10, 2020

Abstract

This study estimates the effects of school start time on sleep time, time use, and educational achievement of high school students. Gyeonggi province, which is the largest province in South Korea, has strongly implemented the 9 O'clock Attendance Policy which delays school start times to 9:00 AM since September 2014. Start times of high schools in Gyeonggi have dramatically changed after the policy, while only a small number of high schools in Seoul have modestly changed their start time during the period. Changes in the above outcomes before-and-after the policy implementation are compared between Gyeonggi and Seoul. The difference-in-differences estimation results show that the policy increases sleep time and this is mostly derived by delayed wake-up time. The policy also reduces adolescents' time use for computer games. The estimations using administrative national exam data show that the policy enhances math scores of high school students.

Keywords: School Start Time, 9 O’Clock Attendance Policy, Sleep Time, Educational Achievement

JEL Classification: I20, I21, I28

Suggested Citation

Kim, Taehoon, The Effects of School Start Time on Educational Outcomes: Evidence From the 9 O’Clock Attendance Policy in South Korea (June 10, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3160037 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3160037

Taehoon Kim (Contact Author)

Kyung Hee University ( email )

Seoul
Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

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