Relative age at school entry, school performance and long-term labour market outcomes

Abstract

This article examines the impact of relative age at school entry on school performance, educational attainment and labour market outcomes later in life. We find that the advantages of maturity at school entry are short-lived with relative age having no impact on the years of formal education, adulthood earnings or employment. Our findings are consistent with the view that assumes modest maturity effects in countries where formal education begins late and there are no ability-differentiated learning groups at initial grades.

Keywords:

• relative age
• school entry
• test scores
• labour market outcomes

JEL Classification:

• I20
• J00
• J23
• J30

Notes

¹ It would be tempting to extend the analysis to those who enter school prior their formal age. This is, however, difficult for two reasons. First, such enrolments are rare, less than 1% for each age cohort. Thus, these pupils are likely to be special in many unobservable ways (ability, strong parental involvement). This would impair statistical precision, and more importantly, produce biased estimates on the role of relative age on school performance.

Additional information

Funding

The Young Finns Study has been financially supported by the Academy of Finland [grant numbers 134309, 126925, 121584, 124282, 129378, 117787 and 41071]. The use of linked data is supported by Palkansaaja and Yrjö Jahnsson foundations [grant numbers 6646 and 6664].