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School Entry Cutoff Date and the Timing of Births

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  • Hitoshi Shigeoka
Abstract
Using birth records in Japan, where school entry rule is strictly enforced, this paper shows that more than 1,800 births a year are shifted from one week before the school entry cutoff date to one week following the cutoff date. Because older children perform better academically than their younger peers, parents who value potential long-term academic gains over the short-term gain of childcare cost savings do exploit birth timing as a means of early childhood investment. Heterogeneous responses by parents violate the assumption of regression discontinuity design that births around the school entry cutoff dates are random.

Suggested Citation

  • Hitoshi Shigeoka, 2015. "School Entry Cutoff Date and the Timing of Births," NBER Working Papers 21402, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21402
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Toshiaki Iizuka & Hitoshi Shigeoka, 2018. "Free for Children? Patient Cost-sharing and Healthcare Utilization," NBER Working Papers 25306, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Ando Michihito & Takaku Reo, 2016. "Affordable False Teeth: The Effects of Patient Cost Sharing on Denture Utilization and Subjective Chewing Ability," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(3), pages 1387-1438, September.
    3. Huang, Cheng & Zhang, Shiying & Zhao, Qingguo, 2020. "The early bird catches the worm? School entry cutoff and the timing of births," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    4. Michael Grossman, 2015. "The Relationship between Health and Schooling: What's New?," Working Papers 8, City University of New York Graduate Center, Ph.D. Program in Economics.
    5. Kaila, Martti, 2017. "The Effects of Relative School Starting Age on Educational Outcomes in Finland," Working Papers 84, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Masuda, Kazuya & Shigeoka, Hitoshi, 2023. "Education and Later-life Mortality: Evidence from a School Reform in Japan," CINCH Working Paper Series (since 2020) 78763, Duisburg-Essen University Library, DuEPublico.
    7. Hyunkuk Cho & Yong-Woo Lee, 2020. "Parental Cheating Regarding Child’s Birthday: A Response to the School Cutoff Date," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 36, pages 175-200.
    8. Attar, Itay & Cohen-Zada, Danny, 2018. "The effect of school entrance age on educational outcomes: Evidence using multiple cutoff dates and exact date of birth," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 38-57.
    9. Tamara Bischof & Christian P.R. Schmid, 2018. "Consumer price sensitivity and health plan choice in a regulated competition setting," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(9), pages 1366-1379, September.
    10. Martins, Luis & Pereira, Manuel C, 2017. "Disentangling the channels from birthdate to educational attainment," MPRA Paper 80607, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Aug 2017.
    11. Damian Clarke & Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana‐Domeque, 2019. "The demand for season of birth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(5), pages 707-723, August.
    12. Wataru Kureishi & Colin McKenzie & Kei Sakata & Midori Wakabayashi, 2021. "Does a Mother's Early Return to Work after Childbirth Improve Her Future Employment Status?," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 215-245, September.
    13. Masuda, Kazuya & Shigeoka, Hitoshi, 2023. "Education and Later-Life Mortality: Evidence from a School Reform in Japan," IZA Discussion Papers 16310, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Shigeoka, Hitoshi & Watanabe, Yasutora, 2023. "Policy Diffusion through Elections," IZA Discussion Papers 16275, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Cheng Huang & Xiaojing Ma & Shiying Zhang & Qingguo Zhao, 2020. "Numerological preferences, timing of births and the long-term effect on schooling," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 531-554, April.
    16. Huang, Cheng & Zhang, Shiying & Zhao, Qingguo & Lin, Yan, 2021. "Dragon year superstition, birth timing, and neonatal health outcomes," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    17. Peña, Pablo A., 2020. "Relative age and investment in human capital," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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