The Effect of Age at School Entry on Education and Income

The purpose of this study is to explore the relative age effect on educational outcomes and labor market benefits in terms of income based on the fact that children enter into school in Japan at different ages due to admission procedure which is performed on 31st March annually. Regression analysis performed on data generated from Employment Status Survey (ESS) 2002 reveals that males born in April have 0.14 years higher education than males born in March whereas females born in April have 0.07 years higher education than females born in March. The higher educational attainment level of April-born males and females does not result in higher total labor market returns in terms of income.

The analysis suggest that relative age hypothesis is largely true whereby older students have an advantage in terms of physical and mental maturity and therefore teacher awareness regarding relative-age differences must be enhanced in order to reduce the disadvantage faced by younger children within the class. Furthermore, attention must be paid to relative age differences at the time of entry into primary school whereby school tracking must also be done with considerable attention being paid to the relative age affect.