Critical Periods in Cognitive and Socioemotional Development: Evidence from Weather Shocks in Indonesia

Abstract

Early life circumstances are important determinants of long-run human capital and wellbeing outcomes. The first 1000 days of life are often cited as a ‘critical period’ for child development, but this notion has rarely been directly tested. In a setting where children are potentially subject to shocks in every year of their childhood, I estimate the impact of early life weather shocks on adult cognitive and socioemotional outcomes for individuals born in rural Indonesia between 1988 and 2000. There is a strong critical period for these shocks at age 2 for cognitive development, but no evidence for a similar critical period for socioemotional development. The effects appear to be driven by changes in agricultural income and nutritional investment. The impacts are initially latent, only appearing after age 15. I show suggestive evidence for dynamic complementarity in early life investments.