Parental love is not blind: Identifying selection into early school start

Ainoa Aparicio Fenoll, Nadia Campaniello and Ignacio Monzón

European Economic Review, 2025, vol. 180, issue C

Abstract: Do parents take into account their children’s ability when deciding on their education? If so, are parents’ perceptions accurate? We study this by analyzing a key educational decision. Parents choose whether their children start elementary school one year early. Do they select high-ability children to start early? We propose a novel methodology to identify the sign and strength of selection into early starting. We find robust evidence of positive selection. Had they started regularly, early starters would have obtained test scores 0.2 standard deviations higher than the average student. We also estimate the effect of early starting on test scores and find that the effect is heterogeneous.

Keywords: School starting age; Selection; Children; Education; Treatment effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 I24 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:180:y:2025:i:c:s0014292125001953

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105145

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