2018 Volume 11 Issue Special_issue Pages S22-S26
This paper estimates the effects of childhood experiences of wearing school uniforms at a public elementary school for 6 years on behavioral traits in adulthood. The school uniform experience can be endogenous if preferences and characteristics of the school and parents are involved in the decision of schools to implement school uniforms. To examine the effect of school uniforms, we exploit the exogenous variation in the expansion of the apparel industry across regions which the Japanese government used as a catalyst in stimulating the economy and the regional variations in prefectural governors’ initiatives for enhancing regional profitability, both of which are found to affect the adoption of school uniform policies. We first find that the childhood experience affects the formulation and development of an individual’s personality traits that are characterized by self-esteem and self-efficacy. Second, it increases reciprocal inclinations, inequity aversion, pro-social tendencies, and preferences for the government’s redistribution policies. We discuss the reasons behind the consequences of school uniforms on noncognitive traits and social preferences, with a focus on an individual’s perception of similarity with others formulated by the childhood experience as an important determinant that affects the behavioral traits.
