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Quantiles of the Gain Distribution of an Early Child Intervention

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  • Battistin, Erich
  • Lamarche, Carlos
  • Rettore, Enrico

Abstract

We offer a new strategy to identify the distribution of treatment effects using the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP), a relatively understudied intervention for low birth-weight infants. We introduce a new policy parameter, QCD, denoting quantiles of the effect distribution conditional on latent neonatal health. The dependence between potential outcomes originates from a new class of factor models where latent health can affect the location and shape of distributions. We show that QCD depends on the marginal distributions of potential outcomes given latent health and achieve identification of these distributions by proxying latent health with neonatal anthropometrics and accounting for measurement error in the proxies. The effects of IHDP are widely distributed across children and depend on neonatal health. Moreover, the large average effects documented in past work for close to normal birth weight children from low-income families are driven by a minority of children in this group.

Suggested Citation

  • Battistin, Erich & Lamarche, Carlos & Rettore, Enrico, 2020. "Quantiles of the Gain Distribution of an Early Child Intervention," CEPR Discussion Papers 14721, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14721
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Early childhood; Factor models; Quantile regression; Treatment effect distributions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

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