Evaluation of the Reggio approach to early education

Pietro Biroli (), Daniela Del Boca, James Heckman, Lynne Pettler Heckman, Yu Kyung Koh, Sylvi Kuperman, Sidharth Moktan, Chiara Pronzato and Anna L. Ziff

Research in Economics, 2018, vol. 72, issue 1, 1-32

Abstract: We evaluate the Reggio Approach using non-experimental data on individuals from the cities of Reggio Emilia, Parma and Padova belonging to one of five age cohorts: ages 50, 40, 30, 18, and 6 as of 2012. The treated were exposed to municipally offered infant-toddler (ages 0–3) and preschool (ages 3–6) programs in Reggio Emilia. The control group either did not receive formal childcare or were exposed to programs offered by municipal systems (outside of Reggio Emilia), or by state or religious systems (in all three cities). We exploit the city-cohort structure of the data to estimate treatment effects using three strategies: difference-in-differences, matching, and matched-difference-in-differences. Most positive and significant effects are generated from comparisons of the treated with individuals who did not receive formal childcare. Relative to not receiving formal care, the Reggio Approach significantly boosts outcomes related to employment, socio-emotional skills, high school graduation, participation in elections, and obesity. Comparisons with individuals exposed to alternative forms of childcare do not yield strong patterns of positive and significant effects. This suggests that differences between the Reggio Approach and other alternatives are not sufficiently large to result in significant differences in outcomes. This interpretation is supported by a survey we conduct, which documents increasing similarities in the administrative and pedagogical practices of childcare systems in the three cities over time.

Keywords: Reggio approach; Early childhood education; Childcare; Evaluation; Italian education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I26 I28 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Evaluation of the Reggio Approach to Early Education (2017)
Working Paper: Evaluation of the Reggio Approach to Early Education (2017)
Working Paper: Evaluation of the Reggio Approach to Early Education (2017)
Working Paper: Evaluation of the Reggio Approach to Early Education (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reecon:v:72:y:2018:i:1:p:1-32

DOI: 10.1016/j.rie.2017.05.006

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