Does preschool boost the development of minority children? The case of Roma children

Christina Felfe and Martin Huber

No 455, FSES Working Papers from Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland

Abstract: Does universal preschool constitute an effective policy tool to promote the development and integration of children from minority groups? In the light of rising cross border migration and increasing ethnic variation in many developed countries, we address this question for the children of the Roma - the largest and most disadvantaged minority in Europe. To tackle the issue of non-random selection into preschool, we exploit variation in the individual distance to the nearest preschool facility. Non-parametric instrumental variable estimations reveal significant short-term gains in terms of children's verbal and analytical skills. Preschool attendance also increases the prevalence of vaccinations, but has no effect on other health outcomes. Overall, it also does not seem to enhance integration measured by language proficiency and peer relations, at least not in the short-run.

Keywords: universal child care; child development; non-parametric instrumental variable estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C21 C26 I10 I21 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2015-02-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://doc.rero.ch/record/234688/files/WP_SES_455.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does preschool boost the development of minority children?: the case of Roma children (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fri:fribow:fribow00455

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://doc.rero.ch/record/234688

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in FSES Working Papers from Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland Bd de Pérolles 90, CH-1700 Fribourg. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mustapha Obbad ().