Working Paper: NBER ID: w21402
Authors: 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.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I24; J11; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Birth timing (C41) | Academic performance (D29) |
| Birth timing (C41) | Birth weight (I38) |
| Birth timing (C41) | Gestational length (C41) |
| Parental beliefs about academic performance (I24) | Birth timing (C41) |
| School entry cutoff date (I21) | Birth timing (C41) |