Közgazdaság- és Regionális Tudományi Kutatóközpont Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Kiváló Kutatóhely

Esemény kezdete: 2017.05.18. 14:00

Esemény vége: 2017.05.18. 16:00

Hely: MTA Kutatóház 1112 Budapest Budaörsi út 45.804-807-es előadóterem.

Leírás:

Dániel Horn
Human capital effects of kindergarten and school enrollment timing
(Ágnes Szabó-Morvai, Dániel Horn, Anna Lovász, Kristof De Witte)

We provide new evidence on the process of early childhood skill formation by examining the effects of both kindergarten and school entry age on the cognitive and non-cognitive skill development of children. Previous literature suggests that individually, earlier entry into kindergarten, a longer time spent in kindergarten, and later enrollment into school may all have a positive effect on children’s human capital. It is important to note that kindergarten enrollment age, years spent in kindergarten, and school enrollment age are perfectly interrelated and hence their effects cannot be separated. We can, however, learn more about the role of each factor by estimating the joint effect of each pairing of these factors. Using the National Assessment of Basic Competencies – which covers full cohorts of Hungarian children in grades 6, 8, and 10 between 2009 and 2015 – we estimate the joint effect of kindergarten enrollment age and years spent in kindergarten, as well as the joint effect of years spent in kindergarten and school enrollment age on cognitive outcomes (test scores) and non-cognitive measures. In order to cure endogeneity problems, we use an instrumental variables approach, utilizing birthdate-related enrollment cutoff rules. The results show that both of these joint effects are important, but the second is much larger: increasing the years spent in kindergarten by postponing school enrollment seems to be more beneficial than doing so by bringing kindergarten enrollment forward. Effect sizes are around 0.05 and 0.3 standard deviations in standardized test scores in the 6th grade. We also show that these effects are declining with age, and that they are partially driven by increased non-cognitive skills such as locus of control and motivation.