Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Costs of Daycare 0â??2 for Children in Advantaged Families

56 Pages Posted: 18 Apr 2016 Last revised: 10 Jun 2019

See all articles by Margherita Fort

Margherita Fort

University of Bologna; Ifo Institute, CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute), Ifo Institute; IZA

Andrea Ichino

University of Bologna

Giulio Zanella

University of Bologna

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 2016

Abstract

Exploiting admission thresholds to the Bologna daycare system, we show using RDD that one additional daycare month at age 0â??2 reduces IQ by 0.5% (4.7% of a s.d.) at age 8â??14 in a relatively affluent population. The magnitude of this negative effect increases with family income. Similar negative impacts are found for personality traits. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis from psychology that children in daycare experience fewer one-to-one interactions with adults, with negative effects in families where such interactions are of higher quality. We embed this hypothesis in a model that lends structure to our RDD.

Keywords: child development, childcare, cognitive skills, daycare, non-cognitive skills

JEL Classification: H75, I20, I28, J13

Suggested Citation

Fort, Margherita and Ichino, Andrea and Zanella, Giulio, Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Costs of Daycare 0â??2 for Children in Advantaged Families (February 2016). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP11120, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2766411

Margherita Fort (Contact Author)

University of Bologna ( email )

Piazza Scaravilli 2
Bologna, 40100
Italy

Ifo Institute, CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute), Ifo Institute ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich
Germany

IZA ( email )

Andrea Ichino

University of Bologna ( email )

Piazza Scaravilli 1
40126 Bologna, fc 47100
Italy
+39 349 5965919 (Phone)

Giulio Zanella

University of Bologna ( email )

Piazza Scaravilli 2
Bologna, 40100
Italy

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