A Study of the Microdynamics of Early Childhood Learning

James J. Heckman and Jin Zhou

No 34294, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper investigates the weekly evolution of child skills as measured by unique data from a widely-emulated early childhood home-visiting program developed in Jamaica, adapted to rural China, and applied in different versions worldwide. The design of the study avoids problems of endogeneity of inputs and lack of truly comparable measures of skills across children that plague previous econometric studies of child development. Skills that are nominally classified as the same, in fact, do not appear to share a common unit scale across levels. They are produced by skill-specific, lifecycle-stage-specific technologies. We formulate and estimate a new dynamic stochastic skill production model for multiple skills that is consistent with the evidence. We quantify the dynamics of early life learning. The model explains the “fadeout” of measures of learning by the emergence of new skills not properly measured. We investigate the role of ability in learning. We find important differences in learning patterns between boys and girls.

JEL-codes: C5 C9 D2 I30 J1 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09
Note: CH DEV ED
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