身高對學生綜合分析能力的影響──以「台灣教育長期追蹤資料庫」為例

EFFECTS OF HEIGHT ON COGNITIVE ABILITY IN ADOLESCENCE: EVIDENCE FROM TAIWAN EDUCATION PANEL SURVEY

本文探討身高對學生綜合分析能力的影響。以綜合分析能力做為認知能力的代表，OLS結果顯示身高與認知能力呈正相關，並排除身高是反映自尊、人際支配、健康、社團經驗、非認知能力等影響認知能力的假設。為修正可能因內生性問題導致的估計誤差，我們使用傾向分數法與「初經年齡」做為工具變數加以修正。我們發現女生初經年齡較早者青春期身高較高，其認知能力也較高。本文結果說明青春期的認知能力受到發育快慢的影響，越早進入青春期發育的青少年，認知能力越好。身高則是反映發育的時間點，因此可作為認知能力高低的代理變數。

This paper investigates the relation between height and cognitive ability by using the data of the Taiwan Education Panel Survey. OLS results show there is a positive relation between teenagers’ height and cognitive ability. The hypotheses of “height are markers of one’s self-esteem, interpersonal dominance, health, experience in sports and clubs, non-cognitive ability and evolutionary theory that reflects those impacts on cognitive ability” are proved to be excluded. We also use the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and female student’s menarche age as an instrument to correct the potential threats of endogeneity problems. We find girls with earlier age of menarche have greater height and better cognitive ability in the junior high school stage. Our findings suggest that cognitive ability is associated with the timing of adolescent growth spurts, such that the earlier the children hit the growth spurts, the better cognitive ability they have. Height in adolescence is a symbol of cognitive ability and reflects the timing of the adolescent growth spurts.