Wealth Gradients in Early Childhood Cognitive Development in Five Latin American Countries

Renos Vakis, Christina Paxson, Daniela Marshall, Karen Macours, Florencia Lopez Boo, David Bravo, Raquel Bernal, Rodrigo Azuero (rodazuero@gmail.com), M. Caridad Araujo, Jere Behrman and Norbert Schady

No 4774, IDB Publications (Working Papers) from Inter-American Development Bank

Abstract: Research from the United States shows that gaps in early cognitive and non-cognitive ability appear early in the life cycle. Little is known about this important question for developing countries. This paper provides new evidence of sharp differences in cognitive development by socioeconomic status in early childhood for five Latin American countries. To help with comparability, we use the same measure of receptive language ability for all five countries. We find important differences in development in early childhood across countries, and steep socioeconomic gradients within every country. For the three countries where we can follow children over time, there are few substantive changes in scores once children enter school. Our results are robust to different ways of defining socioeconomic status, to different ways of standardizing outcomes, and to selective non-response on our measure of cognitive development.

Keywords: Desarrollo cognitivo; Estatus socioeconómico; Primera infancia; Lenguaje receptivo (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 I25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Wealth Gradients in Early Childhood Cognitive Development in Five Latin American Countries (2019)
Journal Article: Wealth Gradients in Early Childhood Cognitive Development in Five Latin American Countries (2015)
Working Paper: Wealth Gradients in Early Childhood Cognitive Development in Five Latin American Countries (2015)
Working Paper: Wealth Gradients in Early Childhood Cognitive Development in Five Latin American Countries (2015)
Working Paper: Wealth gradients in early childhood cognitive development in five Latin American countries (2014)
Working Paper: Wealth Gradients in Early Childhood Cognitive Development in Five Latin American Countries (2014)
Working Paper: Wealth gradients in early childhood cognitive development in five Latin American countries (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:idb:brikps:4774

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