IER SAS Seminar – 29. 04. 2026 at 11:00 – Jakub Lonsky

Dear All,

we are pleased to invite you to another Seminar in Empirical Economics taking place at the library of the Institute of Economic Research of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (IER SAS), on:

April 29, 2026 (Wednesday) at 11:00 – 12:30

This time, the invitation has been accepted by:

Jakub Lonsky
(School of Economics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland),

delivering a presentation titled:

“Breaking the Early Bell: Lessons from the First Statewide Mandate on School Start Times”

Abstract:
This study investigates the effects of California’s Senate Bill 328 (SB 328)—the first state legislation requiring later school start times for middle and high schools—on adolescent sleep, mental health, and academic outcomes. Drawing on data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS) for high school students (grades 9–12) and the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which includes sleep duration for adolescents aged 15 above and bedtimes and wake-up times for children under 13, we analyze shifts in sleep patterns and mental health metrics. We then examine the impact on academic performance using district-level data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA) for students in grades 3–8 and SAT scores for high school students. Employing difference-in-differences (DID) and matched DID methods, we find that SB 328 led to a 14% increase in the share of students sleeping at least 8 hours per night, consistent with CDC recommendations for adolescents. We find suggestive evidence of a reduction in certain mental health problems, particularly difficulties concentrating, though the results are imprecisely estimated and not robust across specifications. Finally, we find evidence of significant improvements in math and English scores in grades 3–8 (approximately a .1 standard deviation increase), while SAT scores rose by 2%. We uncover substantial heterogeneity in the policy’s effects, with larger improvements in sleep and mental health among boys and Hispanic students, and larger academic gains among Hispanic students.

The seminar will be organized in a hybrid form – for those interested, the speaker and a couple of discussants will be present in the library of IER SAS.

Link:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-jo ... d04a%22%7d