Working Paper: NBER ID: w11702
Authors: Jens Ludwig; Douglas L. Miller
Abstract: This paper exploits a new source of variation in Head Start funding to identify the program's effects on health and schooling. In 1965 the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) provided technical assistance to the 300 poorest counties in the U.S. to develop Head Start funding proposals. The result was a large and lasting discontinuity in Head Start funding rates at the OEO cutoff for grant-writing assistance, but no discontinuity in other forms of federal social spending. We find evidence of a large negative discontinuity at the OEO cutoff in mortality rates for children ages 5-9 from causes that could be affected by Head Start, but not for other mortality causes or birth cohorts that should not be affected by the program. We also find suggestive evidence for a positive effect of Head Start on educational attainment in both the 1990 Census, concentrated among those cohorts born late enough to have been exposed to the program, and among respondents in the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988.
Keywords: Head Start; Child Health; Educational Attainment; Regression Discontinuity
JEL Codes: I18; I20; I38
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Head Start funding (I28) | health and educational outcomes (I24) |
| Head Start participation (I21) | reduction in mortality rates among children aged 5-9 (J13) |
| Head Start participation (I21) | high school completion rates (I21) |