Seeing and Hearing: The Impacts of New York City’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program on the Health of Low-Income Children
NBER Working Paper No. 23297
59 Pages Posted: 24 Mar 2017 Last revised: 8 Mar 2019
Date Written: January 15, 2019
Abstract
We examine the effect of New York City’s universal pre-kindergarten program (UPK) on the health and utilization of children enrolled in Medicaid using a difference-in-regression- discontinuities design. We find that UPK increases the probability that a child is diagnosed with asthma or with vision problems, receives treatment for hearing or vision problems, or receives an immunization or screening during the pre-kindergarten year. These effects are not offset by lower rates in the kindergarten year, suggesting that UPK accelerates the rate at which children are identified with and treated for conditions that could potentially delay learning and cause behavioral problems.
Keywords: pre-kindergarten, health, regression discontinuity design, early childhood, Medicaid
JEL Classification: I10, I28, H51, H52
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation