Working Paper: NBER ID: w17704
Authors: Alexander M. Gelber; Adam Isen
Abstract: Parents may have important effects on their children, but little work in economics explores whether children's schooling opportunities crowd out or encourage parents' investment in children. We analyze data from the Head Start Impact Study, which granted randomly-chosen preschool-aged children the opportunity to attend Head Start. We find that Head Start causes a substantial increase in parents' involvement with their children--such as time spent reading to children, math activities, or days spent with children by fathers who do not live with their children--both during and after the period when their children are potentially enrolled in Head Start. We discuss a variety of mechanisms that are consistent with our findings, including a simple model we present in which Head Start impacts parent involvement in part because parents perceive their involvement to be complementary with child schooling in the production of child qualities.
Keywords: Head Start; parental involvement; child schooling; education policy
JEL Codes: H31; H52; I21; I28; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| parental involvement (I24) | enhanced production of child qualities (J13) |
| Head Start access (I24) | Head Start enrollment (I21) |
| Head Start enrollment (I21) | parental involvement (I24) |
| Head Start enrollment (I21) | increased time spent reading to children (J22) |
| Head Start enrollment (I21) | engaging in math activities (C02) |
| Head Start enrollment (I21) | overall days spent with children by fathers not living in the home (J12) |