Is Investment in Preprimary Education Too Low ? Lessons from (Quasi) ExperimentalEvidence across Countries

A large body of evidence suggestssizeable improvements in cognitive and social-emotional skills and subsequent educational attainment followingpreprimary education interventions as well as increases in earnings later in life. Yet, while the world has nearlyreached universal primary education, coverage of early childhood education is still low in many countries. Thisstudy uses a novel global dataset of effect sizes from more than 50 studies conducted in 19 countries to examinemeasures of school participation, cognitive skills, social-emotional skills, and behavior, both during and afterpreprimary ages. Estimates from meta-regression analysis suggest both strong demand for preprimary services whenoffered and significant improvements in children’s cognitive skills (0.15 sd) and their executive functioning,social-emotional learning, and behavior (0.12 sd) during the pre-primary period. Moreover, our meta-analytic resultsindicate statistically significant persistent advantages (0.07 sd) in each type of skill beyond the preprimaryperiod. Pooled heterogeneous treatment effects also suggest higher gains for disadvantaged children. Lastly,cost-benefit analysis using studies from low- and middle-income countries implies benefit-to-cost ratiosranging between 1.7 and 14.2, suggesting high returns to preprimary investments even in contexts with limited state capacity.