UC Riverside

This dissertation investigates the relationships between economic conditions, employment, sleep patterns, health outcomes, and social factors. The research is organized into three chapters, each addressing a unique aspect of these dynamics.

Chapter 1 examines the impact of sleep on fatal vehicle crashes by leveraging variations in sunset times across different locations and seasons. Using sunset time as an instrumental variable, the study finds that a one-hour increase in monthly sleep leads to about a 2.4% reduction in fatalities. These findings highlight the potential benefits of aligning social schedules with natural sleep patterns to reduce accidents.

Chapter 2 explores how employment rates affect sleep patterns. The analysis reveals that weekday sleep is countercyclical, while weekend sleep is procyclical. Employed individuals compensate for reduced weekday sleep by sleeping more on weekends. The study also shows that industries with higher telework prevalence experience smaller decreases in sleep duration as employment rises. Demographic factors such as minority status, lower education levels, and single parenthood exacerbate sleep reductions during high employment periods.

Chapter 3 investigates caste differences in child height in India. The study documents differential growth patterns across caste groups, showing that lower caste children are born shorter and grow less quickly than their higher-caste counterparts. These differences are largely explained by observable covariates, particularly maternal characteristics and household wealth. The research reveals that the influence of these variables changes as children age, with health endowment related variables explaining birth length gaps and health investments becoming more significant over time. Lower caste children face persistent endowment disparities from birth and post-birth investment differentials, which together exacerbate height gaps as they develop.

Collectively, these chapters contribute to a deeper understanding of how economic and social factors influence sleep, health, and development, emphasizing the importance of policies that support adequate sleep and address social inequalities to improve well-being and productivity.