Using a discontinuity in the funding scheme, we evaluate the impact of home visitsand child care centers on poor children and mothers in Ecuador. We find thathome visits are beneficial for children's cognitive outcomes and health and for mothers'psychological well-being but reduce mothers' labor...

A recent literature has used variation just around deterministic legislative population thresholds to identify the causal effects of institutional changes. This paper reviews the use of regression discontinuity designs using such population thresholds. Our concern involves three arguments: (1)...