Does Head Start Improve Children's Life Chances? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

Jens Ludwig and Douglas Miller

No 2111, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper exploits a new source of variation in Head Start funding to identify the program’s effects on health and schooling. In 1965 the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) provided technical assistance to the 300 poorest counties to develop Head Start proposals. The result was a large and lasting discontinuity in Head Start funding rates at the OEO cutoff for grant-writing assistance. We find evidence of a large drop at the OEO cutoff in mortality rates for children from causes that could be affected by Head Start, as well as suggestive evidence for a positive effect on educational attainment.

Keywords: schooling; poverty; early childhood education; health; Head Start (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 I20 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60 pages
Date: 2006-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Published - published in: Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2007, 122 (1), 159-208

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp2111.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does Head Start Improve Children's Life Chances? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design (2007)
Working Paper: Does Head Start Improve Children?s Life Chances? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design (2005)
Working Paper: Does Head Start Improve Children's Life Chances? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design (2005)
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:iza:izadps:dp2111

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().