Parental Investments and Early Childhood Development: Short and Long Run Evidence from India

92 Pages Posted: 24 Sep 2021

See all articles by Saravana Ravindran

Saravana Ravindran

National University of Singapore (NUS), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Date Written: September 22, 2021

Abstract

The overall impacts of early childhood programs depend on the indirect impacts that arise due to intra-household reallocation of parental investments. Using historical administrative data from the rollout of the largest early childhood development program in the world, I find that adults exposed to the program when young showed significant improvements in various measures of health, education, and labor market outcomes. Parents reallocated their investments toward children exposed to an increase in program intensity, as evidenced by negative spillovers on siblings. Accounting for the negative spillovers on siblings reduces the internal rate of return of the program by 9%.

Keywords: Early childhood development, parental investments, sibling spillovers, human capital formation, long run impacts, India

JEL Classification: I15, O15, I18, I38, D15

Suggested Citation

Ravindran, Saravana, Parental Investments and Early Childhood Development: Short and Long Run Evidence from India (September 22, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3928352 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3928352

Saravana Ravindran (Contact Author)

National University of Singapore (NUS), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy ( email )

Singapore
Singapore

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