Birth Timing and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital

Ignacio Palacios-Huerta

Journal of Human Capital, 2024, vol. 18, issue 1, 194 - 226

Abstract: Arbitrary age-cutoff dates used for eligibility in schooling and organized sports create differential opportunities for children that can have long-term consequences. These opportunities, in turn, provide incentives for birth-date targeting. I study a setting in which being born just after the cutoff date is highly advantageous relative to being born late in the eligibility year. Using an exogenous change in the cutoff date, I obtain causal evidence showing how birth timing at conception responds to memory-based salient incentives: certain parents target birth dates to ensure that their children are among the oldest in the eligibility year.

Date: 2024
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Working Paper: Birth timing and the intergenerational transmission of human capital (2024)
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