Relative Age Effect on European Adolescents' Social Network

53 Pages Posted: 17 Dec 2018 Last revised: 16 Apr 2023

See all articles by Luca Fumarco

Luca Fumarco

STATEC

Stijn Baert

Ghent University; University of Antwerp; Catholic University of Louvain (UCL); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract

We contribute to the literature on relative age effects on pupils' (non-cognitive) skills formation by studying students' social network. We investigate data on European adolescents from the Health Behaviour in School Aged Children survey and use an instrumental variables approach to account for endogeneity of relative age while controlling for confounders, namely absolute age, season-of-birth, and family socio-economic status. We find robust evidence that suggests the existence of a substitution effect: the youngest students within a class e-communicate more frequently than relatively older classmates but have fewer friends and meet with them less frequently.

Keywords: social network, relative age, adolescents, education, Europe

JEL Classification: I21

Suggested Citation

Fumarco, Luca and Baert, Stijn, Relative Age Effect on European Adolescents' Social Network. IZA Discussion Paper No. 11972, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3301727 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3301727

Luca Fumarco (Contact Author)

STATEC

BP 304
Luxembourg City, L-2013
Luxembourg

Stijn Baert

Ghent University ( email )

University of Antwerp ( email )

Prinsstraat 13
Antwerp, 2000
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/personeel/stijn-baert/

Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) ( email )

Place Montesquieu, 3
Louvain-la-Neuve, 1348
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.uclouvain.be/en-309318.html

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/personnel/photos/index_html?key=6832

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
40
Abstract Views
466
PlumX Metrics