The First 2,000 Days and Child Skills: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Home Visiting

Orla Doyle

No 201715, Working Papers from School of Economics, University College Dublin

Abstract: Using a randomized experiment, this study investigates the impact of sustained investment in parenting, from pregnancy until age five, in the context of extensive welfare provision. Providing the Preparing for Life program, incorporating home visiting, group parenting, and baby massage, to disadvantaged Irish families raises children’s cognitive and socio-emotional/behavioral scores by two-thirds and one-quarter of a standard deviation respectively by school entry. There are few differential effects by gender and stronger gains for firstborns. The results also suggest that socioeconomic gaps in children’s skills are narrowed. Analyses account for small sample size, differential attrition, multiple testing, contamination, and performance bias.

Keywords: Early childhood intervention; Cognitive skills; Socio-emotional and behavioral skills; Randomized control trial; Multiple hypothesis testing; Permutation testing; Inverse probability weighting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D13 I26 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 84 pages
Date: 2017-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-neu and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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http://hdl.handle.net/10197/8732 First version, 2017 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The First 2,000 Days and Child Skills: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Home Visiting (2017)
Working Paper: The First 2,000 Days and Child Skills: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Home Visiting (2017)
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