Working Paper: NBER ID: w19185
Authors: Paul Gertler; James Heckman; Rodrigo Pinto; Arianna Zanolini; Christel Vermeersch; Susan Walker; Susan M. Chang; Sally Grantham-McGregor
Abstract: We find 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. We 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.
Keywords: early childhood development; psychosocial stimulation; labor market outcomes; inequality; randomized controlled trial
JEL Codes: I10; I20; I25; J20; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| early childhood psychosocial stimulation (I25) | average earnings (J31) |
| early childhood psychosocial stimulation (I25) | cognitive skills (G53) |
| early childhood psychosocial stimulation (I25) | psychosocial skills (O35) |
| cognitive skills (G53) | average earnings (J31) |
| psychosocial skills (O35) | average earnings (J31) |
| early childhood psychosocial stimulation (I25) | maternal investment in children (J13) |
| maternal investment in children (J13) | average earnings (J31) |
| early childhood psychosocial stimulation (I25) | educational attainment (I21) |
| educational attainment (I21) | average earnings (J31) |