What makes a leader? Relative age and high school leadership

Economists have identified a substantial adult wage premium attached to high school leadership activity. Unresolved is the extent to which it constitutes human capital acquisition or proxies for an “innate” unobserved skill. We document a determinant of high school leadership activity that is associated purely with school structure, rather than genetics or family background – a student's relative age. State-specific school entry cut-offs induce …