Emilia Del Bono

We study the effects of academic rank using data on the entire population of children enrolled in primary schools in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1962. Exploiting quasi-random variation in peer group composition, we estimate the causal impact of rank on academic performance, noncognitive development, parental investment, and long-term outcomes. Higher rank improves achievement on the high-stakes eleven-plus examination and strengthens internalizing skills (traits related to self-concept and confidence), suggesting that rank effects operate primarily through students' self-perception. Using a follow-up survey conducted forty years later, we find that rank raises educational attainment, particularly for girls, while long-term income gains emerge only among boys. The gender gap in long-run effects likely reflects historical barriers to women's access to higher education and skilled employment during this period.

This article uses variation in unemployment caused by the 2008 UK recession to analyse socio-economic gaps in graduate outcomes. Our data come from a survey that collects information on several cohorts of students from all English universities and reports their destinations at 6 months after graduation. The results show that, when graduating in a recession, students from less advantaged family backgrounds are more likely to become unemployed, to work part-time, and to earn less than students from more advantaged families. There is evidence that professional networks established while at university are important in explaining some of these socio-economic gaps in outcomes.

Policy-makers wanting to support child development can choose to adjust the quantity or quality of publicly funded universal pre-school. To assess the impact of such changes, we estimate the effects of an increase in free pre-school education in England of about 3.5 months at age 3 on children’s school achievement at age 5. We exploit date-of-birth discontinuities that create variation in the length and starting age of free pre-school using administrative school records linked to nursery characteristics. Estimated effects are small overall, but the impact of the additional term is substantially larger in settings with the highest inspection quality rating but not in settings with highly qualified staff. Estimated effects fade out by age 7.

This paper estimates the impact of elite school attendance on long-run outcomes including completed education, income, and fertility. Our data consist of individuals born in the 1950s and educated in a UK district that assigned students to either elite or non-elite secondary schools. Using instrumental variables methods that exploit the school assignment formula, we find that elite school attendance had large impacts on completed education. Surprisingly, there are no significant effects on most labor market outcomes except for an increase in female income. By contrast, we document a large and significant negative impact on female fertility. (JEL I21, I24, I26, J13, J16, J24, J31)

Using large American and British survey data, this paper provides structural estimates of the production functions for birth weight and fetal growth. In addition to maternal smoking, we estimate the impact of when a mother stops work, which has not been considered in the literature. Mothers’ work interruptions of up to 3 months before birth have a positive effect on birth outcomes, especially among British children. Parental behavior appears to respond to child idiosyncratic endowments in a way that suggests that parents have inequity aversion concerns. Evidence in favor of inequity aversion emerges also from the analysis of breast-feeding decisions

Background Early child health and development (ECD) is important for health in later life. Objectives were to (1) examine the extent of socioeconomic inequality in markers of ECD at ages 3 and 5 years; (2) examine whether the ECD–income gap widens between these ages; (3) assess the contribution of the home learning environment, family routines and psychosocial environment to observed inequalities in ECD. Methods Data on socioemotional difficulties, and tests of cognitive ability in 3-year-old (n=15 382) and 5-year-old (n=15 042) children from the UK Millennium Cohort Study were used. Results Children in the highest income group were less likely to have socioemotional difficulties compared with those in the lowest income group at 3 and 5 years (2.4% vs 16.4% and 2.0% vs 15.9%, respectively) and had higher mean scores: age 3 'school readiness' 114 versus 99; verbal ability 54 versus 48, and age 5: verbal ability 60 versus 51, non-verbal ability 58 versus 54 and spatial ability 54 versus 48 (all pConclusion Our results suggest that relationships between family income and markers of ECD are amenable to change. The role of home learning, family routines and psychosocial environmental factors are potentially important in closing income gaps in ECD.