Early child care and child outcomes: the role of grandparents. Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study

Daniela Del Boca, Daniela Piazzalunga and Chiara Pronzato

No 24, CHILD Working Papers Series from Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA

Abstract: In this paper, we focus on the impact of early grandparents’ care on child cognitive outcomes, in the short and medium term, using data from the Millennium Cohort Study (UK). Compared with children looked after in a formal care centre, children cared by grandparents (as well as parents) are better in naming objects, but worse in tests concerning basic concepts development, problem-solving, mathematical concepts and constructing ability. These results hide strong heterogeneities: on the one hand, the positive association between family care and child outcomes is stronger for children in more advantaged households; on the other hand, the negative association is significant only for children in more disadvantaged households. In order to assess a causal link between early care and child outcomes, we employ panel methods and instrumental variables techniques. The results we obtain confirm the cross section results.

Keywords: Grandparents; Childcare; Child cognitive outcomes. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur and nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cca:wchild:24

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