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High-Quality Early-Childhood Education at Scale: Evidence from a Multisite Randomized Trial

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  • William R. Dougan
  • Jorge Luis García
  • Illia Polovnikov

Abstract

We offer a new analysis of a large-scale trial of an early-childhood education program that targeted premature, low-birthweight children. This targeting heavily oversampled twins, whose outcomes differed significantly from singletons’. Singletons’ gains in short-term cognition and age-18 non-cognitive skills were comparable to those of the Perry Preschool and Carolina Abecedarian Projects, supporting those programs’ scalability. For twins, however, the program generated smaller positive short-term gains and negative age-18 impacts. These outcome differences arise from differences in parents’ response to the program. A household production model suggests that the possibility of jointly supplying parenting to twins helps explain those differences.

Suggested Citation

  • William R. Dougan & Jorge Luis García & Illia Polovnikov, 2023. "High-Quality Early-Childhood Education at Scale: Evidence from a Multisite Randomized Trial," NBER Working Papers 31694, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31694
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • H83 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Public Administration
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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