TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Breitkopf, Laura
AU  - Chowdhury, Shyamal
AU  - Kamhöfer, Daniel A.
AU  - Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah
AU  - Sutter, Matthias
        TI  - The Right Timing Matters: Sensitive Periods in the Formation of Socio-Emotional Skills
        PY  - 2025/Jun/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17974
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17974
        AB  - Identifying sensitive periods in which the returns to investments into skills are especially high is challenging, but crucial for an effective and efficient timing of parental or public investments aimed at fostering children’s skills. We can detect sensitive periods with a novel design by implementing the same investment in different school grades and examining grade-specific treatment effects. Based on a randomized controlled trial with more than 3,200 Bangladeshi children in grades 2 to 5, we find sensitive periods in the formation of self-control and patience in grade 2 (age 7–8), while prosociality remains similarly malleable throughout grades 2 to 5 (age 7–11).
        KW  - social and emotional learning program
KW  - prosociality
KW  - patience
KW  - self-control
KW  - randomized controlled trial
KW  - skill formation
KW  - sensitive periods
KW  - experiments with children
KW  - Bangladesh
        ER  -