Can Academic Redshirting Shrink the Education Gender Gap?

Abstract

I study voluntary delays in the school entry of age-eligible children (“academic redshirting”), using Hungarian administrative test score and medical prescription data, and mental health surveys. I identify a new Local Average Treatment Effect of starting school a year older due to redshirting, by exploiting a school-readiness evaluation required only for potentially redshirted children born before January 1. Instrumenting with post-January 1 births, I estimate effects for non-schoolready children who could overcome developmental deficits with redshirting but are deterred by the evaluation. I find improved test scores, high school track choices, educational aspirations, and graduation rates—but only for boys, who are also less anxious, more confident, and less bullied. Redshirting thus shrinks gender gaps, such as closing the high school completion gap by 60 percent.