Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/319881 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
DICE Discussion Paper No. 422
Publisher: 
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE), Düsseldorf
Abstract: 
Identifying sensitive periods in which the returns to investments into skills are especially high is challenging, but crucial for an effective and efficient timing of parental or public investments aimed at fostering children's skills. We can detect sensitive periods with a novel design by implementing the same investment in different school grades and examining grade-specific treatment effects. Based on a randomized controlled trial with more than 3,200 Bangladeshi children in grades 2 to 5, we find sensitive periods in the formation of self-control and patience in grade 2 (age 7-8), while prosociality remains similarly malleable throughout grades 2 to 5 (age 7-11).
Subjects: 
Sensitive periods
skill formation
randomized controlled trial
self-control
patience
prosociality
social and emotional learning program
experiments with children
Bangladesh
JEL: 
C93
D01
D64
J13
ISBN: 
978-3-86304-421-3
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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