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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
| By: | Richard Blundell (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Jack Britton (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Monica Costa Dias (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Eric French (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Weijian Zou (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Date: | 2025–09–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:25/41 |
| By: | James J. Heckman; Jin Zhou |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the weekly evolution of skills as measured by unique data from a widely-emulated early childhood home-visiting program in rural China. The design of the study avoids input endogeneity issues and lack of comparable measures of skills that plague previous studies. Skills, nominally classified as the same, in fact, do not appear to share a common unit scale across levels. They are produced by skill-lifecycle-stage-specific learning processes. A novel dynamic stochastic skill production model for multiple skills is developed, aligning with empirical evidence. The model explains the “fadeout” of measures of learning through forgetting or depreciation of skills. |
| JEL: | C5 C9 D2 I30 J1 O12 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34294 |
| By: | Orazio Attanasio (Yale University, FAIR @NHH, NBER); Ricardo Paes de Barros (Insper); Pedro Carneiro (University College London, IFS, CEMMAP); David K. Evans (Center for Global Development); Lycia Lima (São Paulo School of Economics, Fundação Getulio Vargas); Pedro Olinto (World Bank); Norbert Schady (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of publicly provided daycare for children aged 0-3 on outcomes of children and their caregivers over the course of seven years after initial daycare enrollment. At the end of 2007, the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil used a lottery to assign children to limited public daycare openings. Winning the lottery translated to a 32 percent increase in total time in daycare during a child’s first four years of life. This allowed caregivers more time to work, resulting in higher incomes for beneficiary households in the first year of daycare attendance and 4 years later (but not after 7 years, by which time all children were eligible for universal schooling). The rise in labor force participation is driven primarily by grandparents and by adolescent siblings residing in the same household as (and possibly caring for) the child, and not by parents, most of whom were already working. Beneficiary children saw sustained gains in height-for-age and weight-for-age, which are likely to have resulted from the better nutrition they received in the center rather than the increase in resources at home. They also saw shorter-term gains in cognitive development, which in contrast to the impacts on nutrition, likely resulted from the short-term gains in home resources. |
| Keywords: | early child development, childcare, Brazil |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J22 O15 |
| Date: | 2025–09–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:728 |
| By: | Caroline Gaudreau; Dani Levine; John List; Dana Suskind |
| Abstract: | Research shows responsive caregiving enhances children's brain development, with parental knowledge predicting positive behaviors and outcomes. However, knowledge varies widely across educational levels, highlighting the need for targeted interventions. Despite evidence that this knowledge can be improved, no comprehensive metric exists for efficient assessment. We introduce SPEAK (Survey of Parent/Provider Expectations and Knowledge), a computer adaptive tool grounded in item-response theory that we created, to address this gap by measuring parental and educator knowledge across development domains with precision and speed. This paper details SPEAK's development, including domain construction, cognitive interviewing, expert review, psychometric calibration, and validity evidence. SPEAK offers a flexible, scalable solution for clinical, educational, research, and policy settings. By identifying knowledge gaps, it enables tailored interventions, supports professional development, and informs policy, ultimately improving parent-child interactions and child outcomes. Our tool bridges critical gaps in assessing child development knowledge, advancing research and cross sector collaboration to promote early childhood development worldwide. |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:artefa:00827 |
| By: | Roland Bénabou; Luca Henkel |
| Abstract: | We review the economic literature on self-image, which conceptualizes identity as a set of beliefs about one’s core traits, values, goals, and social ties. Self-image concerns lead individuals to process information and make choices in non-standard ways that help affirm and protect certain valued identities. We first present the main cognitive mechanisms involved within a simple unifying framework. We then survey the extensive laboratory, online, and field experimental literature on the nature and behavioral implications of self-image concerns. We discuss in particular how they give rise to information and decision avoidance, motivated memory and beliefs, excuse-driven behavior, preferences for truth-telling, hypothetical bias, moral cleansing and moral licensing, collective identities, political preferences, and other forms of self-signaling or self-deception. We subsequently discuss common empirical strategies used to identify self-image concerns, as well as the threats to their validity and how to alleviate them. We conclude by outlining open questions and directions for future research on the belief-based approach to identity. |
| JEL: | D64 D82 D91 Z13 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34297 |