E&BSS: Early School Exposure, Test Scores, and Noncognitive Outcomes - Thomas Cornelissen, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), UCL

We estimate the effects of receiving additional early schooling before age 5 on cognitive and noncognitive outcomes, exploiting unique school-entry rules in England that cause variation in the age at school-entry and the effective length of the first school year. We find that an additional month of exposure to the first year of elementary school increases cognitive and noncognitive test scores by approximately 6–9% of a standard deviation, largely driven by boys with a disadvantaged parental background. There are still sizeable and significant effects on cognitive and noncognitive outcomes by age 7, including sociability and school enjoyment.

Thomas Cornelissen is a Postdoctoral Research Officer at the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) within the UCL Department of Economics. His main research interest is empirical research in labour market and education economics. His publications include papers in Economics of Education Review, Labour Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Economics Letters, The Stata Journal and others.

• For more details contact: Dr Svetlana Makarova

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