Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324372 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 17974
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
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: 
social and emotional learning program
prosociality
patience
self-control
randomized controlled trial
skill formation
sensitive periods
experiments with children
Bangladesh
JEL: 
C93
D01
D64
J13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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