Giving Children a Better Start : Preschool Attendance and School-Age Profiles

Berlinski, Samuel ; Galiani, Sebastian ; Manacorda, Marco

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT;    ACADEMIC OUTCOMES;    ACADEMIC SKILLS;    ADULT LITERACY;    AGE GROUPS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4240
RP-ID  :  WPS4240

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The authors study the effect ofpre-primary education on children's subsequent schooloutcomes by exploiting a unique feature of the Uruguayanhousehold survey (ECH) that collects retrospectiveinformation on preschool attendance in the context of arapid expansion in the supply of pre-primary places. Using awithin household estimator, they find small gains frompreschool attendance at early ages that magnify as childrengrow up. By age 15, treated children have accumulated 0.8extra years of education and are 27 percentage points morelikely to be in school compared with their untreatedsiblings. Instrumental variables estimates that control fornonrandom selection of siblings into preschool lead tosimilar results. The authors speculate that early graderepetition harms subsequent school progression and thatpre-primary education appears as a successful policy optionto prevent early grade failure and its long lasting consequences.