Does the Early Bird Catch the Worm? Instrumental Variable Estimates of Educational Effects of Age of School Entry in Germany

Puhani, Patrick A.; Weber, Andrea Maria

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Does the Early Bird Catch the Worm? Instrumental Variable Estimates of Educational Effects of Age of School Entry in Germany

U of St.Gallen Department of Economics Discussion Paper No. 2006-02

52 Pages Posted: 2 Feb 2006

See all articles by Patrick A. Puhani

Patrick A. Puhani

Leibniz Universität Hannover; University of St. Gallen - Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economic Research; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Université Paris II - Panthéon-Assas

Andrea Maria Weber

Technical University of Darmstadt - Department of Economics; Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Kracow University

Date Written: January 2006

Abstract

We estimate the effect of age of school entry on educational attainment using three different data sets for Germany, sampling pupils at the end of primary school, in the middle of secondary school and several years after secondary school. Results are obtained based on instrumental variable estimation exploiting the exogenous variation in month of birth. We find robust and significant positive effects on educational attainment for pupils who enter school at seven instead of six years of age: Test scores at the end of primary school increase by about 0.42 standard deviations and years of secondary schooling increase by almost half a year.

Keywords: Education, Immigration, Policy, Identification

JEL Classification: I21, I28, J24

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Puhani, Patrick A. and Weber, Andrea Maria and Weber, Andrea Maria, Does the Early Bird Catch the Worm? Instrumental Variable Estimates of Educational Effects of Age of School Entry in Germany (January 2006). U of St.Gallen Department of Economics Discussion Paper No. 2006-02, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=880016