Chapter 5. Heat and Learning in a Moderate Climate: Temperature Effects on Primary School Students in the Netherlands 5.5 Conclusion This chapter estimates the causal effect of temperature exposure on students’ reading and math test scores in primary education. We exploit exogenous variation in students’ exposure at different municipalities over time. For this purpose, we use Dutch panel data on students’ test scores between 2013 and 2023 combined with data location-specific temperature readings on the day of the test. Our results show statistically significant adverse effects of high temperature on reading and math test scores. Compared to a daily maximum temperature between 10-15 degrees Celsius, students score on average around 0.02 SD lower if the warmest moment of the day exceeds 30 degrees Celsius. If we relate the magnitudes of these effects to the learning loss in Dutch primary education during the COVID-19 pandemic in reading and math, respectively, they are around one-sixth and one-tenth as large as these losses (Haelermans et al., 2022). These findings align with previous research on the adverse effects of temperature on student test scores (e.g., Cook & Heyes, 2020; Dang et al., 2024; Graff Zivin et al., 2018; Johnston et al., 2021; Park, 2022; Park et al., 2020; Roach & Whitney, 2022). They contribute to this body of literature by demonstrating that these negative effects also occur in moderate climates, such as in the Netherlands. This suggests that, although temperature extremes in the Netherlands are less severe, they still have negative effects on Dutch students’ reading and math test scores; where differences among the topics are rather subtle, consistent with the finding of Park et al. (2020). Inspecting the temperature in the night before the test reveals that temperature negatively influences students’ reading and math test scores in higher extremes. This suggests that sleep deprivation is a possible mechanism 134
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