Wednesday, November 8th 2023
12:00 a.m – 01.00 p.m CET

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei
Corso Magenta 63, Milan
Sala Cinema

ABSTRACT

This work investigates the impact of higher temperatures on student performance in Italy. The study aligns administrative data on mandatory student tests with granular weather data at the municipality level. The analysis includes standard test results and cheating measures, allowing us to better understand how students respond to higher outdoor temperatures. The analysis takes place in a low-stakes setting characterized by the absence of air conditioning. Using test-to-test random exposure to temperature, the baseline results shows a significant reduction in performance, with stronger effects observed in math and among younger students. By instrumenting for cheating through random class monitoring, this work finds persistent but moderately lower effects of high temperatures on overall test scores.

SPEAKER

Alessandro Palma is Assistant Professor at the GSSI. Formerly, he was post-doctoral researcher at the IEFE Bocconi University and at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He got a Ph.D. in Environmental and Development Economics at the Roma Tre University and he was visiting researcher at the BC3 in Bilbao and at the EPFL in Lausanne. Alessandro’s research focuses on the analysis of environmental externalities and their related effects on economic development, health, labor and innovation processes using causal inference methods. He participated to both national and international research programs with academic and intergovernmental institutions. He was a VisitINPS Research Fellow and external advisor at the Bank of Italy within the project “Economic Effects of Climate Change”.