Reducing Inequality through Dynamic Complementarity: Evidence from Head Start and Public School Spending

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Johnson, Rucker C.; Jackson, C. Kirabo
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research; Northwestern University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20180510
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 310-349
• 关键词: instrumental variables; educational-attainment; impacts; care

摘要

We compare the adult outcomes of cohorts who were differentially exposed to policy-induced changes in Head Start and K-12 spending, depending on place and year of birth. IV and sibling-difference estimates indicate that, for poor children, these policies both increased educational attainment and earnings, and reduced poverty and incarceration. The benefits of Head Start were larger when followed by access to better-funded schools, and increases in K-12 spending were more efficacious when preceded by Head Start exposure. The findings suggest dynamic cornplementarities, implying that early educational investments that are sustained may break the cycle of poverty.