Effects of School Starting Age on the Family

This paper investigates intra-family spillovers from the focal child's timing of school start. We first show how school starting age affects the timing of subsequent educational transitions. Exploiting quasi-random variation in school starting age induced by date of birth, we then document effects on parental outcomes. At child age seven, for example, being one year older at school start increases maternal employment with four percentage points; at child age 15, it increases the likelihood that parents still cohabit with eight percentage points. Our results also indicate that later school start for the focal child improves older siblings' academic performance