The Life-cycle Benefits of an Influential Early Childhood Program

Jorge Luis Garcia (), James Heckman, Duncan Ermini Leaf () and María José Prados
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Duncan Ermini Leaf: University of Southern California

No 10456, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper estimates the long-term benefits from an influential early childhood program targeting disadvantaged families. The program was evaluated by random assignment and followed participants through their mid-30s. It has substantial beneficial impacts on health, children's future labor incomes, crime, education, and mothers' labor incomes, with greater monetized benefits for males. Lifetime returns are estimated by pooling multiple data sets using testable economic models. The overall rate of return is 13.7% per annum, and the benefit/cost ratio is 7.3. These estimates are robust to numerous sensitivity analyses.

Keywords: childcare; early childhood education; long-term predictions; gender differences in responses to programs; health; quality of life; randomized trials; substitution bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I28 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 75 pages
Date: 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-gen, nep-ltv and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

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Working Paper: The Life-cycle Benefits of an Influential Early Childhood Program (2016)
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