Labor Market Returns to Early Childhood Stimulation : A 20-year Followup to an Experimental Intervention in Jamaica
This paper finds 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 Jam...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/07/18005953/labor-market-returns-early-childhood-stimulation-20-year-followup-experimental-intervention-jamaica http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15887 |
| Summary: | This paper finds 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. The authors 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. |
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