Gender Differences in the Effects of School Starting Age on Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills
The Centre for Health Economics (CHE) is hosting the seminar, ‘Gender Differences in the Effects of School Starting Age on Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills (with J. Pan)’, with insights from Dr Julie Moschion, Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute, the University of Melbourne.
The recent literature has clearly established that the age at which children start school has a significant and persistent impact on their education and health outcomes. We also know that school readiness is associated with gender with boys becoming developmentally ready for school later than girls on average.
This paper links those two findings by investigating the effect of school-starting-age on both measures of non-cognitive skills (SDQ, PEDS) and standardised test scores (NAPLAN), separately by gender. To address concerns about the endogeneity of the school-starting-age and the fact that less able children may be redshirted, we instrument the school-starting-age by the minimum-school-starting-age which is determined by the date of birth and the State of residence. We find that starting school later improves boys' non-cognitive skills as well as standardised test scores from 6 to 12 years old, suggesting that the early difficulties that boys face in school may be partly due to starting school too early. In contrast, there is no consistent effect of school-starting-age on girls' non-cognitive skills and standardised test scores. We also find suggestive evidence that this gender difference in the school-starting-age effect transfers to committing minor offences. Our results are robust to a large number of different outcomes and specifications.
Visitors are welcome to attend – registration is not required.
We hope to see you there.
Event Details
- Date:
- 21 August 2019 at 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
- Venue:
- Monash University Caulfield campus, Building H, Level 9, Seminar room H9.21
- Categories:
- Health Economics
Description
The Centre for Health Economics (CHE) is hosting the seminar, ‘Gender Differences in the Effects of School Starting Age on Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills (with J. Pan)’, with insights from Dr Julie Moschion, Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute, the University of Melbourne.
The recent literature has clearly established that the age at which children start school has a significant and persistent impact on their education and health outcomes. We also know that school readiness is associated with gender with boys becoming developmentally ready for school later than girls on average.
This paper links those two findings by investigating the effect of school-starting-age on both measures of non-cognitive skills (SDQ, PEDS) and standardised test scores (NAPLAN), separately by gender. To address concerns about the endogeneity of the school-starting-age and the fact that less able children may be redshirted, we instrument the school-starting-age by the minimum-school-starting-age which is determined by the date of birth and the State of residence. We find that starting school later improves boys' non-cognitive skills as well as standardised test scores from 6 to 12 years old, suggesting that the early difficulties that boys face in school may be partly due to starting school too early. In contrast, there is no consistent effect of school-starting-age on girls' non-cognitive skills and standardised test scores. We also find suggestive evidence that this gender difference in the school-starting-age effect transfers to committing minor offences. Our results are robust to a large number of different outcomes and specifications.
Visitors are welcome to attend – registration is not required.
We hope to see you there.
Event Contact
- Name
- che-enquiries@monash.edu
- Phone
- Organisation