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The Dynastic Benefits of Early Childhood Education

Author

Listed:
  • Jorge Luis Garcia

    (Clemson University)

  • Frederik Bennhoff

    (The University of Chicago)

  • Duncan Ermini Leaf

    (University of Southern California)

  • James J. Heckman

    (The University of Chicago)

Abstract

This paper monetizes the life-cycle intragenerational and intergenerational benefits of the Perry Preschool Project, a pioneering high-quality early childhood education program implemented before Head Start that targeted disadvantaged African-Americans and was evaluated by a randomized trial. It has the longest follow-up of any experimentally evaluated early childhood education program. We follow participants into late midlife as well as their children into adulthood. Impacts on the original participants and their children generate substantial benefits. Access to life-cycle data enables us to evaluate the accuracy of widely used schemes to forecast life-cycle benefits from early-life test scores, which we find wanting.

Suggested Citation

  • Jorge Luis Garcia & Frederik Bennhoff & Duncan Ermini Leaf & James J. Heckman, 2021. "The Dynastic Benefits of Early Childhood Education," Working Papers 2021-033, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:hka:wpaper:2021-033
    Note: ECI
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Jorge Luis García & James J. Heckman, 2023. "Parenting Promotes Social Mobility Within and Across Generations," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 15(1), pages 349-388, September.
    2. 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.
    3. Germán Caruso & Inés Marcos & Ilan Noy, 2024. "Climate Changes Affect Human Capital," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 157-196, March.
    4. Alison Andrew & Orazio Attanasio & Britta Augsburg & Lina Cardona-Sosa & Monimalika Day & Michele Giannola & Sally Grantham-McGregor & Pamela Jervis & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2024. "Early Childhood Intervention for the Poor: Long Term Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 32165, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. García, Jorge Luis & Heckman, James Joseph, 2022. "Three Criteria for Evaluating Social Programs," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 281-286, October.
    6. 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).
    7. Heckman, James J. & Galaty, Bridget & Tian, Haihan, 2023. "The Economic Approach to Personality, Character and Virtue," IZA Discussion Papers 16133, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Frederik H. Bennhoff & Jorge Luis García & Duncan Ermini Leaf, 2024. "The Dynastic Benefits of Early-Childhood Education: Participant Benefits and Family Spillovers," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(1), pages 44-73.
    9. Mette Goertz & Vibeke Myrup Jensen & Sarah Sander, 2023. "Daycare Enrollment Age and Child Development," CEBI working paper series 22-26, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    10. Gertler,Paul J. & Heckman,James J. & Pinto,Rodrigo Ribeiro Antunes & Chang-Lopez,Susan M. & Grantham-Mcgregor,Sally & Vermeersch,Christel M. J. & Walker,Susan & Wright,Amika S., 2021. "Effect of the Jamaica Early Childhood Stimulation Intervention on Labor Market Outcomes at Age 31," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9787, The World Bank.
    11. Feng, Shuaizhang & Gan, Yu & Han, Yujie & Kautz, Tim, 2024. "Shorter can be better: Balancing length and predictive power when measuring noncognitive skills to predict academic outcomes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    12. Gretchen Cusick & Jennifer Gaul-Stout & Reiko Kakuyama-Villaber & Olivia Wilks & Yasmin Grewal-Kök & Clare Anderson, 2024. "A Systematic Review of Economic and Concrete Support to Prevent Child Maltreatment," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-21, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cost-benefit analysis; dynastic benefits; early childhood education; intergenerational program evaluation; life-cycle benefits;
    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
    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate

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