Arbeitspapier

School Starting Age and Infant Health

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.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16676

Classification
Wirtschaft
Health Behavior
Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Subject
school starting age
infant health
maternal age
school cohort

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Borra, Cristina
González, Libertad
Patiño, David
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
(where)
Bonn
(when)
2023

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Borra, Cristina
  • González, Libertad
  • Patiño, David
  • Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Time of origin

  • 2023

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