Dynamic Complementarities in Human Capital Formation: Long-Term Evidence from Preschool and School Feeding

We study whether two large-scale educational investments act as complements in the formation of human capital. We combine the staggered expansion of public preschools in Colombia with the subsequent decentralized roll-out of the national school feeding program. Using nearly two decades of administrative records on educational trajectories, we find that these investments are complementary for academic progression: students exposed to preschool are more likely to complete grades 9 and 11, less likely to drop out, and more likely to enroll in higher education when also exposed to school feeding. These complementarities are larger when school feeding is introduced shortly after preschool and fade when introduced in secondary school. Complementarities in academic performance on the high school exit exam are absent on average but also emerge if school feeding is introduced by the end of primary school. While preschool alone has limited effects, school feeding alone yields sizable medium- and long-term gains, suggesting that later investments can partially remediate the absence of early ones.