[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eti/dpaper/23068.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Silent Eating during Lunchtime at Schools on the COVID-19 Outbreaks

Author

Listed:
  • TAKAHASHI Ryo
  • IGEI Kengo
  • TSUGAWA Yusuke
  • NAKAMURO Makiko
Abstract
Silent eating—no talking during mealtimes—was used as a measure to reduce the spread of infectious diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic because the emission of droplets during conversations was considered a risk factor for spreading the virus. Japan implemented silent eating during school lunchtimes in February 2020, and it remained in effect until November 2022. However, concerns have been raised regarding the potentially negative effects of the policy on children's well-being and educational attainment. More importantly, no study to date has examined its effectiveness in reducing the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks. This study aims to address this important knowledge gap by examining the impact of silent eating on the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks. In November 2022, the Japanese government announced that silent eating in public schools was no longer needed, triggering some schools to discontinue this measure while other schools continued its implementation. Utilizing this cancelation of the silent eating requirement as a natural experiment, we investigated whether silent eating was associated with a reduced risk of COVID-19 outbreaks. We measured the probability of class closures in public schools (the government’s guidelines required class closures when more than one child in a class was infected with COVID-19) by applying a Difference-in-Differences model with two-way fixed effects to panel data. We found no evidence that silent eating was associated with a reduced probability of class closures. Heterogeneity analysis also revealed that our findings did not vary by school characteristics. Our findings indicate that policymakers should be cautious about using silent eating at schools as a potential lever to control outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Suggested Citation

  • TAKAHASHI Ryo & IGEI Kengo & TSUGAWA Yusuke & NAKAMURO Makiko, 2023. "The Effect of Silent Eating during Lunchtime at Schools on the COVID-19 Outbreaks," Discussion papers 23068, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:23068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieti.go.jp/jp/publications/dp/23e068.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Getik, Demid & Meier, Armando N., 2021. "Early Socialization and the Gender Wage Gap," Working Papers 2021:13, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    2. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    3. Luca Braghieri & Ro'ee Levy & Alexey Makarin, 2022. "Social Media and Mental Health," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(11), pages 3660-3693, November.
    4. Atsushi Miyawaki & Yusuke Tsugawa, 2022. "Health and Public Health Implications of COVID‐19 in Asian Countries," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 17(1), pages 18-36, January.
    5. Diva Dhar & Tarun Jain & Seema Jayachandran, 2022. "Reshaping Adolescents' Gender Attitudes: Evidence from a School-Based Experiment in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(3), pages 899-927, March.
    6. Serina Chang & Emma Pierson & Pang Wei Koh & Jaline Gerardin & Beth Redbird & David Grusky & Jure Leskovec, 2021. "Mobility network models of COVID-19 explain inequities and inform reopening," Nature, Nature, vol. 589(7840), pages 82-87, January.
    7. Gautam Rao, 2019. "Familiarity Does Not Breed Contempt: Generosity, Discrimination, and Diversity in Delhi Schools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(3), pages 774-809, March.
    8. Brown, Sarah & Taylor, Karl, 2009. "Social interaction and children's academic test scores: Evidence from the National Child Development Study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 563-574, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Takahashi, Ryo & Igei, Kengo & Tsugawa, Yusuke & Nakamuro, Makiko, 2024. "The effect of silent eating during school lunchtime on COVID-19 outbreaks," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).
    2. Wang, Yupeng & Shimokawa, Satoru, 2024. "A trade-off between lives and the economy? Subsidizing dining out under the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Jin Liu & Xingchen Xu & Xi Nan & Yongjun Li & Yong Tan, 2023. ""Generate" the Future of Work through AI: Empirical Evidence from Online Labor Markets," Papers 2308.05201, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    4. Ma, Rui & Guo, Fei & Li, Dongdong, 2024. "Can public data availability affect stock price crash risk? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    5. Xinming Du, 2023. "Symptom or Culprit? Social Media, Air Pollution, and Violence," CESifo Working Paper Series 10296, CESifo.
    6. Ryo Takahashi, 2022. "Gender differences in tolerance for women's opinions and the role of social norms," Working Papers 2123, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    7. Sayantan Ghosal & Smarajit Jana & Anandi Mani & Sandip Mitra & Sanchari Roy, 2022. "Sex Workers, Stigma, and Self-Image: Evidence from Kolkata Brothels," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(3), pages 431-448, May.
    8. Aparajita Dasgupta & Anisha Sharma, 2024. "Shifting Gendered Social Norms: Impact of a Mass Media Campaign on Child Health in India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(1), pages 108-130, January.
    9. Francesca Truffa & Ashley Wong, 2024. "Undergraduate Gender Diversity and the Direction of Scientific Research," CESifo Working Paper Series 11294, CESifo.
    10. Schultheiss, Tobias & Pfister, Curdin & Gnehm, Ann-Sophie & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2023. "Education expansion and high-skill job opportunities for workers: Does a rising tide lift all boats?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Wang, Zhenggang & Wu, Zenan & Yuan, Ye, 2024. "We’ve got you covered! The effect of public health insurance on rural entrepreneurship in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    12. Ding, Xiangyuan & Yuan, Luoqi & Zhou, Yi, 2023. "Internet access and older adults' health: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    13. Xie, Tingting & Yuan, Ye & Zhang, Hui, 2023. "Information, awareness, and mental health: Evidence from air pollution disclosure in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    14. Holmlund, Helena, 2022. "Preferences and opportunities in the marriage market. How comprehensive schooling made the wealthy marry down," Working Paper Series 2022:11, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    15. Huang, Keqi & Liu, Qiren & Tang, Chengjian, 2023. "Which firms benefit from robot adoption? Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    16. Alvaro Calderon & Vasiliki Fouka & Marco Tabellini, 2021. "Racial Diversity and Racial Policy Preferences: The Great Migration and Civil Rights," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2133, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    17. Javier García-Brazales, 2020. "Caste in Class: Evidence from Peers and Teachers," Working Papers wp2020_2018, CEMFI.
    18. Siddique, Abu & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves, 2024. "Leveraging Edutainment and Social Networks to Foster Interethnic Harmony," CEPR Discussion Papers 19034, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Bas Scheer & Wiljan van den Berge & Maarten Goos & Alan Manning & Anna Salomons, 2022. "Alternative Work Arrangements and Worker Outcomes: Evidence from Payrolling," CPB Discussion Paper 435, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    20. Mac Clay, Pablo & Börner, Jan & Sellare, Jorge, 2023. "Institutional and macroeconomic stability mediate the effect of auctions on renewable energy capacity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:23068. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: TANIMOTO, Toko (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rietijp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.