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The Effect of School Entrance Age on Educational Outcomes: Evidence Using Multiple Cutoff Dates and Exact Date of Birth

Author

Listed:
  • Attar, Itay

    (Ben Gurion University)

  • Cohen-Zada, Danny

    (Ben Gurion University)

Abstract

Using Israeli data, we estimate the effect of school entrance age (SEA) on student outcomes. Unlike much of the recent literature, our identification strategy strictly satisfies the monotonicity assumption required for interpreting our estimates as the local average treatment effect (LATE), and also separates the effect of SEA from date of birth effects. We find that delaying school entry by one year increases fifth grade test scores in Hebrew by 0.34 standard deviations and in math by 0.19. Interestingly, while the advantage in Hebrew slightly decreases in eighth grade, in math it almost doubles. We also show that by failing to control for date of birth fixed effects we would have erroneously concluded that the SEA effect on math test scores decreases slightly from fifth grade to eight grade while it actually substantially increases.

Suggested Citation

  • Attar, Itay & Cohen-Zada, Danny, 2017. "The Effect of School Entrance Age on Educational Outcomes: Evidence Using Multiple Cutoff Dates and Exact Date of Birth," IZA Discussion Papers 10568, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10568
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    8. Dionissi Aliprantis, 2012. "Redshirting, Compulsory Schooling Laws, and Educational Attainment," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 37(2), pages 316-338, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fumarco, Luca & Baert, Stijn, 2019. "Relative age effect on European adolescents’ social network," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 318-337.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    school entrance age; student outcomes; date of birth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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