Working Paper: NBER ID: w30974
Authors: Ryan Cooper; Joseph J. Doyle Jr.; Andrs P. Hojman
Abstract: Children spend years in foster care, and there are concerns that bureaucratic hurdles contribute to unnecessarily long stays. In a novel approach to policy making, the Chilean government randomized the introduction of a program aimed at reducing these delays in order to evaluate its effects on child well-being. Mi Abogado (My Lawyer) provides legal aid and social services to foster children living in institutions. Using administrative data linked across government registries, we find the program reduced the length of stay in foster care with no increase in subsequent placement, resulting in savings that are substantially greater than the cost of the program. The program also led to a reduction in criminal justice involvement and an improvement in school attendance. The results demonstrate that investment in the quality of foster care services can improve child well-being.
Keywords: legal aid; child welfare; randomized trial; foster care; Chile
JEL Codes: H4; K40
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| mi abogado program (K24) | length of stay in foster care (C41) |
| mi abogado program (K24) | criminal justice involvement (K14) |
| mi abogado program (K24) | school attendance (I21) |
| length of stay in foster care (C41) | resource allocation (H61) |