Wealth Gradients in Early Childhood Cognitive Development in Five Latin American Countries

Schady, Norbert ; Behrman, Jere ; Araujo, Maria Caridad ; Azuero, Rodrigo ; Bernal, Raquel ; Bravo, David ; Lopez-Boo, Florencia ; Macours, Karen ; Marshall, Daniela ; Paxson, Christina ; Vakis, Renos

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCOUNT;    ACHIEVEMENT;    AVERAGE SCORE;    CHILD DEVELOPMENT;    CHILD HEALTH;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6779
RP-ID  :  WPS6779

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Research from the United States showsthat gaps in early cognitive and noncognitive abilitiesappear early in the life cycle. Little is known about thisimportant question for developing countries. This paperprovides new evidence of sharp differences in cognitivedevelopment by socioeconomic status in early childhood forfive Latin American countries. To help with comparability,the paper uses the same measure of receptive languageability for all five countries. It finds importantdifferences in development in early childhood acrosscountries, and steep socioeconomic gradients within everycountry. For the three countries where panel data to followchildren over time exists, there are few substantive changesin scores once children enter school. These results arerobust to different ways of defining socioeconomic status,to different ways of standardizing outcomes, and toselective non-response on the measure of cognitive development.