Critical Periods in Cognitive and Socioemotional Development: Evidence from Weather Shocks in Indonesia
研究印度尼西亚农村儿童早期遭遇的天气冲击对成年后认知和社会情感能力的影响，发现两岁时是认知发展的关键期，但社会情感发展没有类似关键期。
Abstract Early-life circumstances are important determinants of long-run human capital and well-being outcomes. The first 1,000 days of life are often cited as a ‘critical period’ for child development, but this notion has rarely been directly tested. In a setting where children are potentially subject to shocks in every year of their childhood, I estimate the impact of early-life weather shocks on adult cognitive and socioemotional outcomes for individuals born in rural Indonesia between 1988 and 2000. There is a strong critical period for these shocks at age two for cognitive development, but no evidence for a similar critical period for socioemotional development. The effects appear to be driven by changes in agricultural income and nutritional investment. The impacts are initially latent, only appearing after age 15. I show suggestive evidence for dynamic complementarity in early-life investments.