IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v108y2020ics0190740919308175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Early Childhood Education and Child Development: New Evidence from Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Bago, Jean-Louis
  • Ouédraogo, Moussa
  • Akakpo, Koffi
  • Lompo, Miaba Louise
  • Souratié, Wamadini dite Minata
  • Ouédraogo, Ernest

Abstract

Early childhood education (ECE) has received rising interest from researchers in recent years. However, its effect on child development is still unclear in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study aims to shed light on the contribution of ECE in children’s development, using robust econometric estimations. We exploit data from the 2011 round of the Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), to build a multidimensional early child development index that accounts for children’s ability to read, count, recognize numbers, interact with peers and other people, follow rules and be independent as well as their health outcomes and physical skills. Then, we estimate the effect of ECE on child development using an endogenous treatment effect model to account for children unequal access to ECE. Results indicate that attending to ECE program increases children early development indicators. We also found that mother’s education, father’s involvement and living in urban area increase child development. These findings are robust to several changes in the specifications. Policy makers and ECE program planners in Ghana should consider investing in preschool education, especially for underprivileged children, in order to build a strong foundation for Ghana’s human resource development.

Suggested Citation

  • Bago, Jean-Louis & Ouédraogo, Moussa & Akakpo, Koffi & Lompo, Miaba Louise & Souratié, Wamadini dite Minata & Ouédraogo, Ernest, 2020. "Early Childhood Education and Child Development: New Evidence from Ghana," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:108:y:2020:i:c:s0190740919308175
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104620
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740919308175
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104620?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James J. Heckman, 1976. "The Common Structure of Statistical Models of Truncation, Sample Selection and Limited Dependent Variables and a Simple Estimator for Such Models," NBER Chapters, in: Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, Volume 5, number 4, pages 475-492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Massimiliano Bratti & Alfonso Miranda, 2011. "Endogenous treatment effects for count data models with endogenous participation or sample selection," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(9), pages 1090-1109, September.
    3. Jane Waldfogel, 2006. "What do children need?," Public Policy Review, Institute for Public Policy Research, vol. 13(1), pages 26-34, March.
    4. Heckman, James J, 1978. "Dummy Endogenous Variables in a Simultaneous Equation System," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(4), pages 931-959, July.
    5. Elizabeth U. Cascio, 2009. "Do Investments in Universal Early Education Pay Off? Long-term Effects of Introducing Kindergartens into Public Schools," NBER Working Papers 14951, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Gibb, Sheree J. & Fergusson, David M. & Horwood, L. John, 2012. "Childhood family income and life outcomes in adulthood: Findings from a 30-year longitudinal study in New Zealand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(12), pages 1979-1986.
    7. Dana Charles McCoy & Evan D Peet & Majid Ezzati & Goodarz Danaei & Maureen M Black & Christopher R Sudfeld & Wafaie Fawzi & Günther Fink, 2016. "Early Childhood Developmental Status in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: National, Regional, and Global Prevalence Estimates Using Predictive Modeling," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-18, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bago, Jean-Louis & Ouédraogo, Moussa & Akakpo, Koffi & Lompo, Miaba Louise & Souratié, Wamadini M. & Ouédraogo, Ernest, 2019. "Early Childhood Education and Children Development : Evidence from Ghana," MPRA Paper 95868, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Banal-Estañol, Albert & Duso, Tomaso & Seldeslachts, Jo & Szücs, Florian, 2022. "R&D spillovers through RJV cooperation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(4).
    3. James J. Heckman, 2008. "Econometric Causality," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 76(1), pages 1-27, April.
    4. Anna Piil Damm, 2009. "Ethnic Enclaves and Immigrant Labor Market Outcomes: Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(2), pages 281-314, April.
    5. Carbó-Valverde, Santiago & Kane, Edward J. & Rodriguez-Fernandez, Francisco, 2013. "Safety-net benefits conferred on difficult-to-fail-and-unwind banks in the US and EU before and during the great recession," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 1845-1859.
    6. Sarel, Roee & Demirtas, Melanie, 2021. "Delegation in a multi-tier court system: Are remands in the U.S. federal courts driven by moral hazard?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    7. Wisuwat Chujan & Weerachart T. Kilenthong, 2019. "Short-term Impact of an Early Childhood Curriculum Intervention in Rural Thailand," Working Papers 2019-077, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    8. Giorgio Calzolari & Antonino Di Pino, 2017. "Self-selection and direct estimation of across-regime correlation parameter," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(12), pages 2142-2160, September.
    9. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    10. Matteo, PICCHIO, 2006. "Wage Differentials and Temporary Jobs in Italy," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2006033, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques.
    11. Jerg Gutmann & Matthias Neuenkirch & Florian Neumeier, 2020. "Precision-guided or blunt? The effects of US economic sanctions on human rights," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 185(1), pages 161-182, October.
    12. Claudio Detotto & Laura Serra & Marco Vannini, 2019. "Did specialised courts affect the frequency of business bankruptcy petitions in Spain?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 125-145, February.
    13. Armen Hovakimian & Edward Kane & Luc Laeven, 2003. "How Country and Safety-Net Characteristics Affect Bank Risk-Shifting," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 23(3), pages 177-204, June.
    14. Garel, Alexandre & Martín-Flores, José M. & Petit-Romec, Arthur, 2020. "Stock market listing and the persistence of bank performance across crises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    15. Rihab BELLAKHAL & Mohamed-Badrane MAHJOUB, 2010. "Estimating the Impact of Tunisian Training Programs on Wage, Using a Simultaneous Equations Model with Self-Selectivity," EcoMod2010 259600023, EcoMod.
    16. Giampiero Marra & Rosalba Radice & Silvia Missiroli, 2014. "Testing the hypothesis of absence of unobserved confounding in semiparametric bivariate probit models," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 715-741, June.
    17. Christian Bayer & Falko Juessen, 2012. "On the Dynamics of Interstate Migration: Migration Costs and Self-Selection," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 15(3), pages 377-401, July.
    18. Amr Hosny, 2018. "Firm Performance and their Perception of Political Instability in Egypt: Evidence from an Endogenous Treatment Regression Model," Journal of African Development, African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), vol. 20(2), pages 61-68.
    19. Alakent, Ekin & Goktan, M. Sinan & Khoury, Theodore A., 2020. "Is venture capital socially responsible? Exploring the imprinting effect of VC funding on CSR practices," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(3).
    20. Sarah Jewell & Pantelis Kazakis, 2021. "Migration patterns and job satisfaction: evidence from European doctorate holders," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 66(2), pages 359-407, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:108:y:2020:i:c:s0190740919308175. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.