Too hot or too cold to study? The effect of temperature on student time allocation

This paper studies the causal effect of temperature on students' time use for both college and high school students. Students substitute study time with leisure on days with extremely low and high temperatures. Extreme temperatures also have a noticeable heterogeneous effect on time allocation for both groups of students. College students respond to the unpleasant weather by substituting study time with weather-appropriate leisure. In comparison, high school students reduce both class and self-study time, which is more frequent during cold days. Lastly, students in cold and hot climates are observed to react more to the temperature to which they are not acclimatized. Our findings offer a different perspective by uncovering the black box behind the relationship between weather and test scores seen in recent literature.

Automated summary

This study investigates the impact of temperature on students' time allocation, finding that students adjust study time for leisure in extreme temperatures. The response to weather varies between college and high school students, with the latter showing more frequent reductions in study time during cold days. Students in climates different from what they are accustomed to are observed to react more strongly to temperature changes.