Children starting school at older ages consistently exhibit better educational outcomes. In this paper, we underscore … child development as a mechanism driving this effect. We study the causal effect of school starting age on a child …'s probability of developing special educational needs in early grades. We find that starting school at a relatively older age …

information on the public-private character of both operation and funding of each tested school. Across countries, public …

all due to differences in what students bring with them to school – socio-economic background, cultural factors, and the … like? Or do school systems make a difference? This essay argues that differences in features of countries' school systems … factors of the school system, as well as factors beyond the school system, account for cross-country achievement differences …

Decentralization of decision-making is among the most intriguing recent school reforms, in part because countries went … countries. Relying on panel estimation with country fixed effects, we identify the effect of school autonomy from within …-country changes in the average share of schools with autonomy over key elements of school operations. Our results show that autonomy …

In this paper, we study how high school students reacted to the shocking news of a school shooting. The shooting … coincided with national high-school matriculation exams. As there were exams both before and after the shooting, we can use a … difference-in-differences analysis to uncover how the school shooting affected the test scores compared to previous years. We …