Discussion Papers no. 808

Evidence from a lottery

Child care before age two and the development of language and numeracy

Young children are thought to be vulnerable to separation from the primary caregiver/s. This raises concern about whether early child care enrollment may harm children's development.

Young children are thought to be vulnerable to separation from the primary caregiver/s. This raises concern about whether early child care enrollment may harm children's development. We use child care assignment lotteries to estimate the effect of child care starting age on early cognitive achievement in Oslo, Norway. Getting a lottery offer lowers starting age by about four months, from a mean of about 19 months in the control group. Lottery estimates show significant score gains for children at age seven. Survey evidence and an increase in employment of both mothers and fathers following the offer, suggest that parental care is the most relevant alternative mode of care. We document that the assignment lottery generates balance in observable characteristics, supporting our empirical approach.

About the publication

Title

Child care before age two and the development of language and numeracy. Evidence from a lottery

Authors

Nina Drange, Tarjei Havnes

Series and number

Discussion Papers no. 808

Publisher

Statistics Norway

Topic

Discussion Papers

ISSN

1892-753X

Number of pages

37

Language

English

About Discussion Papers

Discussion papers comprise research papers intended for international journals and books. A preprint of a Discussion Paper may be longer and more elaborate than a standard journal article as it may include intermediate calculations, background material etc.

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