“Will I see you in September?” An economic explanation for the standard school calendar

The September-to-June school year is not the product of a path-dependent, agrarian tradition. Nineteenth-century American farm children regularly attended school in summer. The standard calendar became a norm as urbanization of the population allowed for age-graded schooling, which works best when calendars are coordinated across districts. A summer vacation between school years provides households with a cost-minimizing season in which to relocate to distant districts. The equator provides a natural experiment supporting this explanation. Americans and Europeans on temporary assignment in the Southern Hemisphere use schools that maintain a Northern Hemisphere calendar to facilitate relocation to their home countries.