Long-term effects of female teacher on her pupils' smoking behaviour later in life

TL;DR

This study investigates how having a female teacher in elementary school influences students' likelihood of smoking later in life, using a natural experiment in Japan.

Contribution

It provides causal evidence that female teachers in early education reduce the long-term likelihood of smoking among students.

Findings

Students with female teachers are less likely to smoke in adulthood.

The effect is identified through a quasi-natural experimental setting.

Results suggest early female teacher influence impacts health behaviors later.

Abstract

In Japan, teacher and student is randomly matched in the first year of elementary school. Under the quasi-natural experimental setting, we examine how learning in female teacher homeroom class in the elementary school influence pupils' smoking behavior after they become adult. We found that pupils are unlikely to smoke later in life if they belonged to female teacher homeroom class in pupil's first year of school.