Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP11120
Authors: Margherita Fort; Giulio Zanella
Abstract: Exploiting admission thresholds to the Bologna daycare system, we show using RDD that one additional daycare month at age 0–2 reduces IQ by 0.5% (4.7% of a s.d.) at age 8–14 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: daycare; childcare; child development; cognitive skills; noncognitive skills
JEL Codes: J13; I20; I28; H75
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| daycare attendance at age 02 (J13) | cognitive outcomes at ages 8 to 14 (I26) |
| daycare attendance at age 02 (J13) | noncognitive outcomes at ages 8 to 14 (I21) |
| family income (D31) | negative effects of daycare attendance on IQ (I21) |
| daycare attendance at age 02 (J13) | increase in neuroticism (E71) |