In this article, we present the impact evaluation of Irûmi, an educational robot-based intervention aimed at developing second-grade students' computational thinking (CT) skills in Paraguay. Our results indicate that the program had an effect of 0.09 standard deviations on the students' CT...

Although it is widely acknowledged that high-skilled teachers are integral to service quality and young children's well-being in child care settings, little is known about the qualifications and skills of the child care workforce. This paper combines data from multiple sources to provide a...

We estimate the short- and long-term effects of universal preschool education by analyzing the impact of the Israeli Preschool Law, which mandated the provision of public preschool for ages 3 and 4 starting in September 1999. We focus on the Arab population, who were the main beneficiaries of...

This paper provides large-scale evidence linking the economic effects of childcare programs to social skills measured in adulthood. We examine Finland's first national public childcare program, and document that it increased parental labor supply - through retirement - while reducing the...

This paper provides large-scale evidence linking the economic effects of childcare programs to social skills measured in adulthood. We examine Finland's first national public childcare program, and document that it increased parental labor supply -through retirement- while reducing the...

Im Rahmen eines Seminars zu Sozialgeschichte, Philosophie und Ethik setzten sich dual Studierende der Sozialen Arbeit und Kindheitspädagogik (IU Ulm, WS 24/25) mit berufsethischen Grundlagen auseinander. Ausgangspunkt waren beobachtete Unterschiede zwischen eigenen ethischen Orientierungen in...

We study the relative effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and interaction of family- and schoolbased learning interventions using a randomized controlled trial in Colombia that assigns children to a parental engagement program, a teacher professional development program, both, or a control group....

The Head Start program, launched in 1965 and targeted to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, remains the largest early childhood care and education (ECE) program in the United States and the only one deployed at the federal level. As such, the Head Start literature spans several decades and...

Viet Nam’s investment in its youngest generation is fundamentally an investment in the country’s future human capital. Today, over 10 million Vietnamese children under age 6 (with another one million expected in the next five years) will reach working age by 2040. This cohort is projected to...

Im Rahmen eines Seminars zu Sozialgeschichte, Philosophie und Ethik setzten sich dual Studierende der Sozialen Arbeit und Kindheitspädagogik (IU Ulm, WS 24/25) mit berufsethischen Grundlagen auseinander. Ausgangspunkt waren beobachtete Unterschiede zwischen eigenen ethischen Orientierungen in...

The Head Start program, launched in 1965 and targeted to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, remains the largest early childhood care and education (ECE) program in the United States and the only one deployed at the federal level. As such, the Head Start literature spans several decades and...

Women's employment remains highly sensitive to childcare constraints, making childcare availability a critical lever for supporting mothers' labor force attachment. We study the effects of expanded full-day programming in Head Start, using the 2016 federal funding initiative that targeted...

Reducing poverty is a central policy priority in many countries, also in wealthy countries with comprehensive universal support systems, such as the Nordic welfare states. This study examines policy options designed to support families with preschool-aged children and their implications for...

We offer a new analysis of a large-scale trial of an early-childhood education program that targeted premature, low-birthweight children. This targeting heavily oversampled twins, whose outcomes differed significantly from singletons'. Singletons' gains in short-term cognition and age-18...

We demonstrate the social efficiency of investing in high-quality early childhood education using newly collected data from the HighScope Perry Preschool Project. The data analyzed are the longest follow-up of any randomized early childhood education program. Annual observations of participant...

Nearly 200 million children under five in low- and middle-income countries face developmental deficits, even as access to early childhood services expands. We present evidence from a large-scale randomized controlled trial (N=3,131 children in 201 schools) in Nepal's government system testing...

Nearly 200 million children under five in low- and middle-income countries face developmental deficits despite growing access to early childhood services. We report evidence from a randomized controlled trial (N=3,131 children in 201 schools) in Nepal's government system that tested three models...

Many existing approaches to screen time management rely on simplistic time limits or general warnings that fail to address the complex realities families face. Parents often turn to screens as practical solutions to everyday challenges-needing to complete tasks, manage difficult behaviors, or...

This paper examines the long-term impacts of early-life drought exposure on the human capital and socioeconomic outcomes of women born in the Arab Republic of Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco across more than five decades. Using a pooled cross-section of 13 rounds of the Demographic and Health...

Evidence-based parenting programs are interventions aimed at improving behaviors, parental practices, skills, and knowledge to promote healthy child development, through support and education from professionals or paraprofessionals working directly with the child's caregiver. The objective of...

We estimate the causal impacts of universal preschool by leveraging a quasi-experimental design based on Israel's implementation of free public preschool for children ages 3 and 4 beginning in September 1999. We focus on the Arab population, who were the main beneficiaries of the first phase of...

We evaluate impacts heterogeneity of an Early Childhood Intervention, with respect to the Educational Attainment Polygenic Score (EA4 PGS) constructed from DNA data based on GWAS weights from a European population. We find that the EA4 PGS is predictive of several measures of child development,...

We investigate social disparities in digital skills, focusing on both actual proficiency levels and confidence in these skills. Drawing on a representative sample from Germany, we first demonstrate that both dimensions strongly predict labor market success. We then use this sample to identify...

We evaluate impacts heterogeneity of an Early Childhood Intervention, with respect to the Educational Attainment Polygenic Score (EA4 PGS) constructed from DNA data based on GWAS weights from a European population. We find that the EA4 PGS is predictive of several measures of child development,...

We adapted a violence-prevention, parenting program (the Irie Homes Toolbox, or IHT) for integration into Jamaican preschool services. The adapted IHT was evaluated in a mixed-method feasibility trial in Kingston, Jamaica. Twenty-four preschools were randomly assigned to intervention (n12) or...

We evaluate impacts heterogeneity of an Early Childhood Intervention in Colombia, with respect to the Educational Attainment Polygenic Score (EA4 PGS) constructed from DNA data based on GWAS weights from a European population. We find that the EA4 PGS is predictive of several measures of child...

We examine gender gaps in early childhood cognitive and social-behavioral skills across several Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. Our study complements previous research focused on older children by analyzing the preschool period, a critical stage for lifelong human capital...

Early childhood is a crucial period for skills development and socio-emotional growth. Forcibly displaced children experience significant trauma, necessitating effective interventions. This paper examines the effect of Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs on the psychosocial and...

The share of qualified early childhood education teachers has declined even as the total number of teachers has increased. This reflects the fact that the number of qualified teachers has not grown at the same pace as the teacher workforce overall. Demand has been driven by rising participation...

Families receiving universal credit usually receive an additional element worth £3,514 per year for each child they have. However, for third and subsequent children born from 6 April 2017 onwards, families do not receive this uplift, due to a policy known as the ‘two-child limit’. The...

In the first analysis purporting to causally link environmental pollution to personality, Schwaba and colleagues leveraged a natural experiment driven by the United States. They used the Clean Air Act to assess the impact of decreased atmospheric lead on the "big five" personality traits. Using...

This paper provides large-scale evidence linking the economic effects of childcare programs to social skills measured in adulthood. We examine Finland’s first national public childcare program, and document that it increased parental labor supply - through retirement - while reducing the...

European countries have made significant commitments to expand early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a foundation for lifelong learning and social inclusion. However, gaps persist in the participation of children from vulnerable groups. These include those in poverty, Roma and migrant...

European countries have made significant commitments to expand early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a foundation for lifelong learning and social inclusion. However, gaps persist in the participation of children from vulnerable groups. These include those in poverty, Roma and migrant...