School entry age and educational attainment in developing countries: Evidence from China's compulsory education law

Jiaying Chen and Albert Park

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2021, vol. 49, issue 3, 715-732

Abstract: We investigate the causal impact of age of enrolment on educational attainment in a developing country setting. Using China's 1986 Compulsory Education Law, which established a new nationally uniform age threshold for primary school enrolment as a natural experiment, we find that the probability of attending high school falls by 3.6 percentage points when school enrolment is postponed by one year. We provide suggestive evidence that those who start school later are not better learners, and that older students' higher labor opportunity cost plays an important role in explaining the negative impact of school entry age on educational attainment.

Keywords: school entry age; Educational attainment; Compulsory education law; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:49:y:2021:i:3:p:715-732

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2020.12.004

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