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The Impact of Pre-school on Adolescents' Outcomes: Evidence from a Recent English Cohort

Author Info

  • Apps, Patricia

    ()

    (University of Sydney)

  • Mendolia, Silvia

    ()

    (University of Wollongong)

  • Walker, Ian

    ()

    (Lancaster University)

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between attendance at nursery school and children's outcomes in adolescence. In particular, we are interested in child cognitive development at ages 11, 14 and 16, intentions towards tertiary education, economic activity in early adulthood, and in a group of non-cognitive outcomes, such as risky health behaviours (smoking, early pregnancy, use of cannabis) and personality traits (feelings and commitments about school; psychological well-being). Using matching methods to control for a very rich set of child's and family's characteristics, we find that pre-school childcare largely improves results in cognitive tests at age 11 and 14 and 16, and has a positive effect on intentions towards further education and economic activity at age 19-20. Positive effects are especially noticeable for children coming from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Results on non-cognitive outcomes are more mixed: we do not find any evidence of improvement in psychological well-being, but we do find some positive effects on health behaviours.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 6971.

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Length: 33 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2012
Date of revision:
Publication status: published in: Economics of Education Review, 2013, 37, 183-199
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6971
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Keywords: child outcomes; childcare;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
  • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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Cited by:

  1. Figlio, David & Karbownik, Krzysztof & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2015. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 24/2015, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics.
  2. Olivier Filatriau & Denis Fougère & Maxime To, 2013. "Will Sooner Be Better ? The Impact of Early Preschool Enrollment on Cognitive and Noncognitive Achievement of Children," Working Papers 2013-10, Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique.
  3. Clifton-Sprigg, Joanna, 2015. "Educational spillovers and parental migration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 64-75.
  4. Frauke H. Peter & Pia S. Schober & C. Katharina Spieß, 2014. "Early Birds in Day Care: The Social Gradient in Starting Day Care and Children's Non-cognitive Skills," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1438, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
  5. Joanna Clifton-Sprigg, 2014. "Out of sight, out of mind? Educational outcomes of children with parents working abroad," ESE Discussion Papers 251, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.

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