Research

Work in Progress

Sibling Spillovers in Education, with Maximilian Bach & Jan Marcus.

Abstract

School starting age regulations are a globally applied policy measure. However, the literature on this policy measure focuses almost exclusively on the directly affected children and neglects potential spillover effects on siblings. This study examines whether a child’s school starting age also affects the educational outcomes of the child’s younger siblings.
Relying on German Census data and exploiting variation in older sibling’s school-track assignment resulting from school starting age, we find that the track of the older sibling increases the younger siblings’ probability to attend the same track. These effects are robust across two complementary research designs: a regression discontinuity design that focuses on children born around the the cutoff date for school entry and a difference-in-differences design that exploits variation in the school entry cutoffs across and within states. The findings show that educational policies have effects beyond those directly affected: Policies focusing on older siblings might generate substantial spillover effects for younger siblings and have the potential to reduce educational inequality.

Presentations

2025: Workshop on Empirical Microeconomics (Halle); NU:DE Workshop on Applied Microeconomics (Nuremberg)