Working Paper: NBER ID: w23390
Authors: Pietro Biroli; Daniela Del Boca; James J. Heckman; Lynne Pettler Heckman; Yu Kyung Koh; Sylvi Kuperman; Sidharth Moktan; Chiara D. Pronzato; Anna Ziff
Abstract: We evaluate the Reggio Approach using non-experimental data on individuals from the cities of Reggio Emilia, Parma and Padova belonging to one of five age cohorts: ages 50, 40, 30, 18, and 6 as of 2012. The treated were exposed to municipally offered infant-toddler (ages 0-3) and preschool (ages 3-6) programs. The control group either did not receive formal childcare or were exposed to programs offered by the state or religious systems. We exploit the city-cohort structure of the data to estimate treatment effects using three strategies: difference-in-differences, matching, and matched-difference-in-differences. Most positive and significant effects are generated from comparisons of the treated with individuals who did not receive formal childcare. Relative to not receiving formal care, the Reggio Approach significantly boosts outcomes related to employment, socio-emotional skills, high school graduation, election participation, and obesity. Comparisons with individuals exposed to alternative forms of childcare do not yield strong patterns of positive and significant effects. This suggests that differences between the Reggio Approach and other alternatives are not sufficiently large to result in significant differences in outcomes. This interpretation is supported by our survey, which documents increasing similarities in the administrative and pedagogical practices of childcare systems in the three cities over time.
Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Reggio Approach; Nonexperimental Data; Child Outcomes
JEL Codes: I21; I26; I28; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| reggio approach (B53) | employment (J68) |
| reggio approach (B53) | socioemotional skills (Z13) |
| reggio approach (B53) | high school graduation (I23) |
| reggio approach (B53) | election participation (K16) |
| reggio approach (B53) | obesity levels (I14) |
| reggio approach (B53) | various outcomes (C52) |
| no preschool (A21) | various outcomes (C52) |
| reggio approach (B53) | outcomes from other preschool types (I21) |