TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cascio,Elizabeth
AU  - Schanzenbach,Diane Whitmore
TI  - First in the Class?  Age and the Education Production Function
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13663
PY  - 2007
Y2  - December 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13663
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13663.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Elizabeth U. Cascio
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
6106 Rockefeller Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
Tel: (603) 646-4096
Fax: (603) 646-2122
E-Mail: elizabeth.u.cascio@dartmouth.edu

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach
School of Education and Social Policy
Northwestern University
Annenberg Hall, Room 205
2120 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Tel: 847/491-3884
E-Mail: dws@northwestern.edu
AB  - We estimate the effects of having more mature peers using data from an experiment where children of the same age were randomly assigned to different kindergarten classrooms. Exploiting this experimental variation in conjunction with variation in expected kindergarten entry age to account for negative selection of older school entrants, we find that exposure to more mature kindergarten classmates raises test scores up to eight years after kindergarten, and may reduce the incidence of grade retention and increase the probability of taking a college-entry exam. These findings are consistent with broader peer effects literature documenting positive spillovers from having higher-scoring peers and suggest that – contrary to much academic and popular discussion of school entry age – being old relative to one’s peers is not beneficial.
ER  -