The Dynastic Benefits of Early Childhood Education

Jorge Luis Garcia (), Frederik Bennhoff, Duncan Ermini Leaf and James Heckman
Additional contact information
Jorge Luis Garcia: Clemson University
Duncan Ermini Leaf: University of Southern California

No 2021-033, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

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.

Keywords: cost-benefit analysis; dynastic benefits; early childhood education; intergenerational program evaluation; life-cycle benefits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 H43 I28 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-ltv and nep-ure
Note: ECI
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Garcia ... ldhood-education.pdf First version, June 30, 2021 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Dynastic Benefits of Early Childhood Education (2021)
Working Paper: The Dynastic Benefits of Early Childhood Education (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hka:wpaper:2021-033

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