School Starting Age and Infant Health

Cristina Borra, Libertad Gonzalez and David Patiño
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David Patiño: University of Seville

No 16676, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the effects of school starting age on siblings' infant health. In Spain, children born in December start school a year earlier than those born the following January, despite being essentially the same age. We follow a regression discontinuity design to compare the health at birth of the children of women born in January versus the previous December, using administrative, population-level data. We find small and insignificant effects on average weight at birth, but, compared to the children of December-born mothers, the children of January-born mothers are more likely to have very low birthweight. We then show that January-born women have the same educational attainment and the same partnership dynamics as December-born women. However, they finish school later and are (several months) older when they have their first child. Our results suggest that maternal age is a plausible mechanism behind our estimated impacts of school starting age on infant health.

Keywords: maternal age; infant health; school starting age; school cohort (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 65 pages
Date: 2023-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hea, nep-ltv and nep-ure
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Published - published in: Health Economics, 2024, 33 (6), 153-1191

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