Labor Market Returns to Early Childhood Stimulation : A 20-year Followup to an Experimental Intervention in Jamaica
This paper finds large effects on the earnings of participants from a randomized intervention that gave psychosocial stimulation to stunted Jamaican toddlers living in poverty. The intervention consisted of one-hour weekly visits from community Jamaican health workers over a 2-year period that taught parenting skills and encouraged mothers to interact and play with their children in ways that would develop their children's cognitive and personality skills. The authors re-interviewed the study participants 20 years after the intervention. Stimulation increased the average earnings of participants by 42 percent. Treatment group earnings caught up to the earnings of a matched non-stunted comparison group. These findings show that psychosocial stimulation early in childhood in disadvantaged settings can have substantial effects on labor market outcomes and reduce later life inequality.
Summary: | This paper finds large effects on the
earnings of participants from a randomized intervention that
gave psychosocial stimulation to stunted Jamaican toddlers
living in poverty. The intervention consisted of one-hour
weekly visits from community Jamaican health workers over a
2-year period that taught parenting skills and encouraged
mothers to interact and play with their children in ways
that would develop their children's cognitive and
personality skills. The authors re-interviewed the study
participants 20 years after the intervention. Stimulation
increased the average earnings of participants by 42
percent. Treatment group earnings caught up to the earnings
of a matched non-stunted comparison group. These findings
show that psychosocial stimulation early in childhood in
disadvantaged settings can have substantial effects on labor
market outcomes and reduce later life inequality. |
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