TY  - JOUR
AU  - Anderson,Patricia M.
AU  - Butcher,Kristin F.
AU  - Cascio,Elizabeth U.
AU  - Schanzenbach,Diane Whitmore
TI  - Is Being in School Better?  The Impact of School on Children's BMI When Starting Age is Endogenous
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16673
PY  - 2011
Y2  - January 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16673
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16673.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Patricia M. Anderson
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
6106 Rockefeller
Hanover, NH  03755-3514
Tel: 603/646-2532
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: patricia.m.anderson@dartmouth.edu

Kristin Butcher
Department of Economics
Wellesley College
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481
Tel: 781/283-2179
Fax: 781/283-2177
E-Mail: kbutcher@wellesley.edu

Elizabeth U. Cascio
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
6106 Rockefeller Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
Tel: (603) 646-4096
Fax: (603) 646-2122
E-Mail: elizabeth.u.cascio@dartmouth.edu

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach
School of Education and Social Policy
Northwestern University
Annenberg Hall, Room 205
2120 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Tel: 847/491-3884
E-Mail: dws@northwestern.edu
AB  - In this paper, we investigate the impact of attending school on body weight and obesity. We use school starting age cutoff dates to compare weight outcomes for similar age children with different years of school exposure.  As is the case with academic outcomes, school exposure is related to unobserved determinants of weight outcomes because some families choose to have their child start school late (or early).  If one does not account for this endogeneity, it appears that an additional year of school exposure results in a greater BMI and a higher probability of being overweight or obese.  When actual exposure is instrumented with expected exposure based on school starting dates and birthday, the significant positive effects disappear, and most point estimates become negative and insignificant.  However, for children not eating the school lunch, there is a significant negative effect on the probability of being overweight.
ER  -