The rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program

James Heckman, Seong Hyeok Moon, Rodrigo Pinto, Peter Savelyev () and Adam Yavitz

Journal of Public Economics, 2010, vol. 94, issue 1-2, 114-128

Abstract: This paper estimates the rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program, an early intervention program targeted toward disadvantaged African-American youth. Estimates of the rate of return to the Perry program are widely cited to support the claim of substantial economic benefits from preschool education programs. Previous studies of the rate of return to this program ignore the compromises that occurred in the randomization protocol. They do not report standard errors. The rates of return estimated in this paper account for these factors. We conduct an extensive analysis of sensitivity to alternative plausible assumptions. Estimated annual social rates of return generally fall between 7 and 10%, with most estimates substantially lower than those previously reported in the literature. However, returns are generally statistically significantly different from zero for both males and females and are above the historical return on equity. Estimated benefit-to-cost ratios support this conclusion.

Keywords: Rate; of; return; Cost-benefit; analysis; Standard; errors; Perry; Preschool; Program; Compromised; randomization; Early; childhood; intervention; programs; Deadweight; costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (417)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Rate of Return to the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program (2009)
Working Paper: The Rate of Return to the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program (2009)
Working Paper: The Rate of Return to the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:94:y:2010:i:1-2:p:114-128

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