Prep School for Poor Kids: The Long-Run Impacts of Head Start on Human Capital and Economic Self-Sufficiency

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bailey, Martha J.; Sun, Shuqiao; Timpe, Brenden
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; The World Bank; University of Nebraska System; University of Nebraska Lincoln
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20181801
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 3963-4001
• 关键词: preschool; WAR; poverty; access; intervention; abecedarian; inference; PROGRAMS; HEALTH

摘要

This paper evaluates the long-run effects of Head Start using large-scale, restricted administrative data. Using the county roll-out of Head Start between 1965 and 1980 and age-eligibility cutoffs for school entry, we find that Head Start generated large increases in adult human capital and economic self-sufficiency, including a 0.-65-year increase in schooling, a 2.-7 percent increase in high school completion, an 8.5 percent increase in college enrollment, and a 39 percent increase in college completion. These estimates imply sizable, long-term returns to investments in means-tested, public preschool programs.