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Universal Pre-School Education: The Case of Public Funding with Private Provision

Author

Listed:
  • Jo Blanden
  • Emilia Del Bono
  • Sandra McNally
  • Birgitta Rabe

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of free pre-school education on child outcomes in primary school. We exploit the staggered implementation of free part-time pre-school for three-year-olds across Local Education Authorities in England in the early 2000s. The policy led to small improvements in attainment at age five, with no apparent benefits by age 11. We argue that this is because the expansion of free places largely crowded out privately paid care, with small changes in total participation, and was achieved through an increase in private provision, where quality is lower on average than in the public sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Jo Blanden & Emilia Del Bono & Sandra McNally & Birgitta Rabe, 2015. "Universal Pre-School Education: The Case of Public Funding with Private Provision," CEP Discussion Papers dp1352, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1352
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Esther Duflo, 2001. "Schooling and Labor Market Consequences of School Construction in Indonesia: Evidence from an Unusual Policy Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 795-813, September.
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    6. Birgitta Rabe & Mark Taylor, 2010. "Residential mobility, quality of neighbourhood and life course events," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 173(3), pages 531-555, July.
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    8. Ludovica Gambaro & Kitty Stewart & Jane Waldfogel, 2013. "A question of quality: Do children from disadvantaged backgrounds receive lower quality early years education and care in England?," CASE Papers case171, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
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    10. Gambaro, Ludovica & Stewart, Kitty & Waldfogel, Jane, 2013. "A question of quality: do children from disadvantagedbackgrounds receive lower quality early years educationand care in England?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51274, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Datta Gupta, Nabanita & Simonsen, Marianne, 2010. "Non-cognitive child outcomes and universal high quality child care," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 30-43, February.
    12. Fitzpatrick Maria D, 2008. "Starting School at Four: The Effect of Universal Pre-Kindergarten on Children's Academic Achievement," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-40, November.
    13. Berlinski, Samuel & Galiani, Sebastian & Manacorda, Marco, 2008. "Giving children a better start: Preschool attendance and school-age profiles," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1416-1440, June.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Childcare; child outcomes; publicly provided goods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • H44 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Goods: Mixed Markets

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