Reexamining a Multisite Early Childhood Education Program: Gradual Scale-Up, Birth Spacing, and Parental Investment

William R. Dougan, Jorge Luis García and Illia Polovnikov

Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, 2026, vol. 4, issue 3, 749 - 796

Abstract: We reexamine the Infant Health and Development Program, a multisite, randomized, high-quality early childhood education program that unintentionally oversampled twins by targeting premature low birth weight children. We find that birth spacing determines program effectiveness. For singletons, outcome gains up to age 18 replicate across sites and are comparable to gains observed for iconic programs like the Perry Preschool Project. For twins, gains become negative by age 18. Program impacts on parental investment (parenting) mediate outcome differences; the program increases parenting for singletons and decreases it for twins. A household production model indicates that the possibility of jointly supplying inputs to twins explains the decrease in parenting.

Date: 2026
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