Early Childhood Education and Care: A Quantitative Research Program

Project details

Project manager

Magne Mogstad

Partners

• Tarjei Havnes (University of Oslo & SSB) • Edwin Leuven (University of Oslo & SSB) • Katrine Løken (University of Bergen & SSB) • Marte Rønning (SSB) • Sandra Black (University of Austin, Texas), • Nabanita Datta Gupta (Aarhus School of Business) • Paul Devereux (University College Dublin) • Chris Herbst (Arizona State University) • Kjell Salvanes (Norwegian School of Economics) • Marianne Simonsen (University of Aarhus) • Erdal Tekin (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies)

Clients

Norges Forskningsråd (UTDANNING2020- og FINNUT-programmene)

Project term

2011-2016

Project status

Ongoing

Research field

• Economics of education

About the Project

Investments in early childhood can have great returns. Particularly for children from disadvantaged families, the positive effects are well documented in several countries. For example, some studies have placed poor children randomly into groups receiving day care and close follow-up, and other groups who do not receive this. Returns are great well into adulthood: higher income, higher education, less crime and fewer behavioral problems. The question is whether such gains can also be found in children who are less disadvantaged. Programs to be implemented on a large scale must also necessarily be less intensive and tailored to the individual. In the research project we measure the effects of day care centers and public programs for families in the general population, to try to give answers to the effectiveness of the schemes in contributing to children's development.

In one of the studies in the research project (Havnes and Mogstad, "Is Universal Child Care Leveling the Playing Field?", published in the Journal of Public Economics), we study how the expansion in child care in Norway in the late 1970s affected the long-term outcomes for children who were affected by the expansion. Those who are today in their mid thirties were the first to attend kindergarten in a large scale. Among these child care helped to increase education, reduce benefit dependency and to tie them closer to the labor market. In particular, the expansion compressed income distribution, primarily by increasing the low and regular income, but also partly by reducing the highest incomes.

Forskningsartikler

Artikler publisert i internasjonale tidsskrifter

Black, Sandra E. & Paul J. Devereux & Katrine V. Løken & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2014. "Care or Cash? The Effect of Child Care Subsidies on Student Performance," Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(5), pages 824-837, December.

Carneiro, P., K. V. Løken and K. Salvanes, 2015. “A Flying Start? Maternity Leave and Long Run Outcomes of Children.” Journal of Political Economy, forthcoming.

Dahl, Gordon & Katrine V. Løken, & Magne Mogstad, 2014. “Peer Effects in Program Participation.” American Economic Review, forthcoming.

Datta Gupta, Nabanita & Marianne Simonsen, 2012. “The effects of type of non-parental child care on pre-teen skills and risky behavior,” Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 622-625.

Havnes, Tarjei & Magne Mogstad, 2010. "Is Universal Child Care Leveling the Playing Field? Evidence from Non-Linear Difference-in-Differences," Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming.

Artikler utgitt som working papers

Andreoli, Francesco & Tarjei Havnes & Arnaud Lefranc, 2014. "Equalization of opportunity: Definitions, implementable conditions and application to early-childhood policy evaluation," CEPS/INSTEAD Working Paper Series 2014-12.

Dahl, Gordon B., Katrine V. Løken, Magne Mogstad and Kari Vea Salvanes, 2013. “What Is the Case for Paid Maternity Leave?,” No 7707, IZA Discussion Papers, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

Drange, Nina & Tarjei Havnes, 2012. "Kindergarten for all: Long run effects of a universal intervention," Discussion Papers 695, Research Department of Statistics Norway.

Herbst, Chris, 2014. “Universal Child Care, Maternal Employment, and Children's Long-Run Outcomes: Evidence from the U.S. Lanham Act of 1940.” IZA Discussion Paper No. 7846.

Leuven, Edwin and Eric Maurin, 2014. “Starting school: The earlier the better? An evaluation of the French early schooling policy,” Mimeo.

Populærvitenskapelige avisartikler

Tarjei Havnes: “Mer skole eller bedre læring?” Verdens Gang 31.02.2014

Tarjei Havnes and Magne Mogstad: PISA bør forbedre testene sine,” Aftenposten 10.03.2014

Tarjei Havnes and Magne Mogstad: Har barnehager fått kvinner i arbeid? Aftenposten 08.05.2014

Tarjei Havnes and Magne Mogstad: “Dyrt barnehageløft,” Aftenposten 21.08.2014

Tarjei Havnes and Magne Mogstad: “Svakt fra OECD,” Aftenposten 07.03.2014

Katrine Løken: “For mye betalt fødselspermisjon?” Bergens Tidende 5.12.2013

Katrine Løken: Utilsiktede konsekvenser av velmenende politikk.” Bergens Tidende 23.1.2014

Katrine Løken: “Hva med barna når skoledagen er over?” Bergens Tidende 6.3.2014

Katrine Løken: “Like barn leker best?” Bergens Tidende 24.4.2014

Katrine Løken: “Behold fedrekvoten!” Dagens Næringsliv 23.5.2014

Katrine Løken: “Økonomi, forurensning og barns helse,” Dagens Næringsliv 23.7.2014

Katrine Løken: “Kutt fødselspermisjonen!” Dagens Næringsliv 26.9.2014