ABSTRACT:

We investigate the impact of school-starting-age on cognitive and non-cognitive skills of boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 16. Using Australian data, we are able to distinguish school-starting-age effects from age-at-test effects. Results point to large and significant gender differences in school-starting-age effects. In particular, boys starting school younger show more behavioural problems (esp. hyperactivity) and have lower academic achievement in reading and numeracy. In contrast, girls do as well whether they start earlier or later. We also find that younger boys' disadvantage is particularly salient in States where redshirting is less common, suggesting that it can be an efficient policy tool to reduce inequalities of opportunities due to differences in relative age.

BIO:

A/Prof Julie Moschion holds a PhD from the Paris School of Economics (2009) and has been at the University of Melbourne since 2010 (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research). Julie’s research revolves around a number of issues related to disadvantage in education, housing, health and labour economics. Specifically, she works on homelessness & precarious housing, substance use, incarceration, gender gaps in education, peer effects and female's labour market participation. Her current agenda focuses on developing data capacity to build the scientific evidence on the root causes of Indigenous disadvantage and support public policies that can lift the lives of Indigenous communities.

She has published in Economics and multidisciplinary academic journals of the highest quality: American Economic Journal: Applied; European Economic Review; Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization; Social Science & Medicine; Journal of Quantitative Criminology. She is currently an Associate Editor at the Australian Journal of Social Issues.

Please contact naomi.snowball@anu.edu.au for the zoom link.