The Effect of Early Childhood Education on Adult Criminality: Evidence from the 1960s through 1990s

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Anders, John; Barr, Andrew C.; Smith, Alexander A.
• 署名单位: Trinity University; Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station; United States Department of Defense; United States Army; United States Military Academy
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200660
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 37-69
• 关键词: outcomes; crime; intervention; abecedarian; PROTECTION; Preschool; inference; PROGRAMS; BEHAVIOR; impacts

摘要

We compare the effects of early childhood education on adult crimi-nal behavior across time periods, using administrative crime data that provide significant precision advantages over existing work. We find that improvements in early childhood education led to large (20 per-cent) reductions in later criminal behavior, reductions that far exceed those implied by estimates of test score gains in prior studies. While the benefits generated account for a large portion of the costs of the education provided, we find substantial relative gains from the target-ing of funds to high-poverty areas and areas without existing access to subsidized care. (JEL H75, I21, I26, I28, I32, I38, K42)