Is Early Learning Really More Productive? The Effect of School Starting Age on School and Labor Market Performance

By Peter Fredriksson, Björn Öckert. Social Science Research Network, 2005

216 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In Sweden, children typically start compulsory school the year they turn seven. Hence, individuals born just before or just after the new year, have about the same date of birth but start school at different ages. We exploit this source of exogenous variation, to identify the effects of age at school entry on test scores, grades, educational attainment and labor market performance. Using a rich data set for the entire Swedish population born 1935-84, we find that children who start school at an older age do better in school and go on to have more education than their younger peers. Children from families with weaker educational tradition have more to win from starting school later. The long-run earnings effects are positive but small. However, since starting school later entails the opportunity cost of entering the labor market later, the net earnings effect over the entire life-cycle is negative. Exploiting within-school variation in peer age composition, we find that the school starting age effect primarily is due to absolute maturity rather than to the relative age in the class.

Subfields: Education, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f0d3de2b0866789ee96d15b0f695cb06045629f4

Citations in the corpus

• Actual Age at School Entry, Educational Outcomes, and Earnings (2011, unknown): “Fredriksson and Ockert (2005) and McEwan and Shapiro (2008) obtained similar results for Sweden and Chile, respectively.”
• Kindergarten Entrance Age and Children’s Achievement (2009, unknown): “By contrast, Bedard and Dhuey (2006) and Fredriksson and Öckert (2005) show the opposite, while Fertig and Kluve (2005) find no relationship between entrance age and schooling.”
• Does the early bird catch the worm? (2007, unknown): “Compared to Fredriksson and Ockert (2005) and Bedard and Dhuey (2006), who apply an instrumental variable strategy similar to ours to Swedish administrative data and international TIMSS data together with additional data for the US and Canada, respectively, the results for Germany are comparable in ”
• Do School Entry Laws Affect Educational Attainment and Labor Market Outcomes (2010, unknown): “are more likely to thrive in professional sports, and Fredriksson and Öckert (2006) found a negative impact on wages for the youngest individuals in a cohort in Sweden. However, Black, Devereux, and Salvanes (2008)”
• What makes a leader? Relative age and high school leadership (2008, unknown): “6 See: Allen & Barnsley, 1993; Bedard & Dhuey, 2006; Fredriksson & Ockert, 2005; Puhani & Weber,”
• Quantile Treatment Effects in the Regression Discontinuity Design: Process Results and Gini Coefficient (2010, unknown): “…and Skou as (2003), Brügger, Lalive, and Zweimüller (2008), Chay and Greenstone (2005), Chay, McEwan, and Urquiola (2005), DiNardo and Lee (2004), Fredriksson and Öckert (2006), Forslund and Skans (2006), Imbens and Lemieux (2008), Gormley and Phillips (2005), Guryan (2001), Jepsen, Mueser, and…”
• The Duration of Paid Parental Leave and Children's Scholastic Performance (2010, unknown): “This is in line with results in Fredriksson and Öckert (2006) showing that children born early do better in school, since they are older when they start.”
• When you are born matters: The impact of date of birth on educational outcomes in England (2010, unknown): “In contrast to Fredriksson and Ockert (2005), Black, Devereux and Salvanes (2008) find that starting school younger has a small positive effect on earnings, which has disappeared by age 30.”