Working Paper: NBER ID: w27356
Authors: James J. Heckman; Bei Liu; Mai Lu; Jin Zhou
Abstract: This paper develops a new framework for estimating the causal impacts on child skills and the mechanisms producing these impacts using data from a randomized control study of a widely evaluated early-childhood home visiting program. We show the feasibility of replicating the program at scale. We report estimates from standard procedures for reporting treatment effects as unweighted averages item scores and compare them with estimates adjusting for item difficulties. Such adjustments produce more interpretable estimates. We go beyond treatment effects and estimate individual-specific latent skills, comparing treatment and control skills and their impacts on test scores.
Keywords: Home Visiting Programs; Child Development; Randomized Control Trials; Early Childhood Education
JEL Codes: J13; Z18
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| home visiting program (I15) | language skills (G53) |
| home visiting program (I15) | cognitive skills (G53) |
| home visiting program (I15) | fine motor skills (G53) |
| home visiting program (I15) | social-emotional skills (I24) |
| home visiting program (I15) | improvements in home environment (D19) |
| improvements in home environment (D19) | child development outcomes (J13) |
| home visiting program (I15) | latent skills (J24) |
| latent skills (J24) | language skills (G53) |
| latent skills (J24) | cognitive skills (G53) |