TY - JOUR AU - Cuffe,Harold E. AU - Harbaugh,William T. AU - Lindo,Jason M. AU - Musto,Giancarlo AU - Waddell,Glen R. TI - Evidence on the Efficacy of School-Based Incentives for Healthy Living JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 17478 PY - 2011 Y2 - October 2011 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17478 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17478.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Harold E. Cuffe Department of Economics University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1285 E-Mail: cuffe@uoregon.edu William T. Harbaugh Department of Economics University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1285 Tel: 541/346-1244 Fax: 541/346-1243 E-Mail: harbaugh@uoregon.edu Jason M. Lindo Department of Economics University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1285 Tel: 541/346-4664 E-Mail: jlindo@uoregon.edu Giancarlo Musto Université de Lyon 93 Chemin des mouilles 69130 Ecully E-Mail: musto@gate.cnrs.fr Glen Waddell Department of Economics University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1285 Tel: 541 346 1259 E-Mail: waddell@uoregon.edu AB - We analyze the effects of a school-based incentive program on children's exercise habits. The program offers children an opportunity to win prizes if they walk or bike to school during prize periods. We use daily child-level data and individual fixed effects models to measure the impact of the prizes by comparing behavior during prize periods with behavior during non-prize periods. Variation in the timing of prize periods across different schools allows us to estimate models with calendar-date fixed effects to control for day-specific attributes, such as weather and proximity to holidays. On average, we find that being in a prize period increases riding behavior by sixteen percent, a large impact given that the prize value is just six cents per participating student. We also find that winning a prize lottery has a positive impact on ridership over subsequent weeks; consider heterogeneity across prize type, gender, age, and calendar month; and explore differential effects on the intensive versus extensive margins. ER -