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Gender differences in the benefits of an influential early childhood program

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  • García, Jorge Luis
  • Heckman, James J.
  • Ziff, Anna L.

Abstract

This paper studies the life-cycle impacts of a widely emulated high-quality, intensive early childhood program with long-term follow up. The program starts early in life (at 8 weeks of age) and is evaluated by an RCT. There are multiple treatment effects which we summarize through interpretable aggregates. Girls have a greater number of statistically significant treatment effects than boys and effect sizes for them are generally bigger. The source of this difference is worse home environments for girls with greater scope for improvement by the program. Fathers of sons support their families more than fathers of daughters.

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  • García, Jorge Luis & Heckman, James J. & Ziff, Anna L., 2018. "Gender differences in the benefits of an influential early childhood program," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 9-22.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:109:y:2018:i:c:p:9-22
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2018.06.009
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    Cited by:

    1. Emily Moschini, 2019. "Child Care Subsidies with One- and Two-Parent Families," 2019 Meeting Papers 42, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    2. Cozzi, Guido & Francesconi, Marco & Lundberg, Shelly & Mantovan, Noemi & Sauer, Robert M., 2018. "Advancing the economics of gender: New insights and a roadmap for the future," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 1-8.
    3. Jorge Luis Garcia & James J. Heckman & Victor Ronda, 2021. "The Lasting Effects of Early Childhood Education on Promoting the Skills and Social Mobility of Disadvantaged African Americans," Working Papers 2021-037, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    4. Raquel Bernal & Michele Giannola & Milagros Nores, 2022. "The Effect of Center-Based Early Education on Disadvantaged Children's Developmental Trajectories: Experimental Evidence from Colombia," Working Papers 2022-027, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    5. Nores, Milagros & Bernal, Raquel & Barnett, W. Steven, 2019. "Center-based care for infants and toddlers: The aeioTU randomized trial," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 30-43.
    6. Giménez, Víctor & Thieme, Claudio & Prior, Diego & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2022. "Evaluation and determinants of preschool effectiveness in Chile," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Jorge Luis García & James J. Heckman, 2021. "Early childhood education and life‐cycle health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(S1), pages 119-141, November.
    8. Gabriella Conti & Stavros Poupakis & Malte Sandner & Sören Kliem, 2019. "The Effects of Home Visiting on Mother-Child Interactions: Evidence from Dynamic Micro-Level Data," Working Papers 2019-066, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    9. Victoria Baranov & Sonia Bhalotra & Pietro Biroli & Joanna Maselko, 2017. "Maternal Depression, Women’s Empowerment, and Parental Investment: Evidence from a Large Randomized Control Trial," CHILD Working Papers Series 60 JEL Classification: I1, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    10. Jo Blanden & Emilia Del Bono & Kirstine Hansen & Birgitta Rabe, 2022. "Quantity and quality of childcare and children’s educational outcomes," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(2), pages 785-828, April.
    11. Ahsan,Md Nazmul & Banerjee,Rakesh & Maharaj,Riddhi, 2020. "Early-Life Access to a Basic Health Care Program and Adult Outcomes in Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9243, The World Bank.
    12. Paolo Brunori & Paul Hufe & Daniel Gerszon Mahler, 2017. "The Roots of Inequality: Estimating Inequality of Opportunity from Regression Trees," Working Papers - Economics wp2017_18.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    13. Britta Rude, 2022. "Can We Grow with our Children? The Effects of a Comprehensive Early Childhood Development Program," ifo Working Paper Series 372, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    14. Dougan, William & García, Jorge Luis & Polovnikov, Illia, 2023. "High-Quality Early-Childhood Education at Scale: Evidence from a Multisite Randomized Trial," IZA Discussion Papers 16442, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Dasgupta, Kabir & Diegmann, André & Kirchmaier, Tom & Plum, Alexander, 2022. "The gender reveal: The effect of sons on young fathers’ criminal behavior and labor market activities," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    16. Anthony Bald & Eric Chyn & Justine Hastings & Margarita Machelett, 2022. "The Causal Impact of Removing Children from Abusive and Neglectful Homes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(7), pages 1919-1962.
    17. James J. Heckman & Bridget Galaty & Haihan Tian, 2023. "The Economic Approach to Personality, Character and Virtue," NBER Working Papers 31258, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Carta, Francesca & Rizzica, Lucia, 2018. "Early kindergarten, maternal labor supply and children's outcomes: Evidence from Italy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 79-102.
    19. Kim, Jun Hyung & Schulz, Wolfgang & Zimmermann, Tanja & Hahlweg, Kurt, 2018. "Parent–child interactions and child outcomes: Evidence from randomized intervention," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 152-171.
    20. Bennhoff, Frederik H. & García, Jorge Luis & Leaf, Duncan Ermini, 2023. "The Dynastic Benefits of Early Childhood Education: Participant Benefits and Family Spillovers," IZA Discussion Papers 16370, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Azevedo E Castro De Cardim,Joana & Amaro Da Costa Luz Carneiro,Pedro Manuel & Carvalho,Leandro S. & De Walque,Damien B. C. M., 2022. "Early Education, Preferences, and Decision-Making Abilities," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10187, The World Bank.
    22. Jonas Lau-Jensen Hirani & Hans Henrik Sievertsen & Miriam Wust, 2020. "The Timing of Early Interventions and Child and Maternal Health," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 20/720, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    23. Victoria Baranov & Sonia Bhalotra & Pietro Biroli & Joanna Maselko, 2018. "Maternal Depression, Women's Empowerment, and Parental Investment: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial," Working Papers 2018-021, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    24. Baranov, Victoria & Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Biroli, Pietro & Maselko, Joanna, 2017. "Maternal Depression, Women's Empowerment, and Parental Investment: Evidence from a Large Randomized Control Trial," IZA Discussion Papers 11187, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender differences; Childcare; Early childhood education; Randomized trials; Substitution bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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