Essays in Economics of Education

This thesis wants to explore two different aspects of the Italian education system. The first two chapters are focused on the school starting age, the third one analyzes the introduction of the electronic logbook in Italian schools. In chapter 1 I use administrative data from INVALSI test in different grades to study the effects of early enrollment to the primary school, in other words, the effects on student achievement of being enrolled to the first grade at the age of 5 instead of 6. The number of early enrollers is much higher in the South Italy than in the North. To understand the reason of this difference is not the aim of this work. I found that there is strong selection in early enrollment, with early enrollers having higher ability on average. However, early enrollers are younger than regular enrollers at the moment of the test, and even if they are more skilled on average, the effect of age on scores remains significant. As a result, the North-South gap in Invalsi test scores is partially driven by the difference in average age at the moment of the test with students from the south younger than northerners. In chapter 2 I use survey data from a sample of parents in 5 primary schools located in Palermo, where the 50% of the students born between January and April are early enrollers. I found preliminary evidence of peer effects among parents at the moment of the choice for enrollment. In the last chapter I found that the introduction of the electronic logbook increased scores at the INVALSI tests for tenth graders but not for younger students. This could be due to the fact older students have more independence and the electronic logbook helps parents to monitor them.