Synthesizing and interpreting the evidence on early interventions This research application has three specific, interrelated aims: (1) to systematically compare the major experimental early childhood intervention programs (Perry, Abecedarian, Chicago Parent-Child Centers, Nurse Family Partnership and Infant Health and Development Program) and the major nonexperimental family influence studies (NLSY79/97, CNLSY79, PSID, NSFH, HSB, AddHealth, NELS88, ECLS-K, NCDS58.and BCS70);(2) develop and implement small-sample testing to make full use of the longitudinal aspect of the data, as well as using vectors of outcome measures to recognize the multiple hypotheses associated with the null of no treatment effects;(3) develop and apply dynamic models of cognitive and noncognitive skill development to interpret the evidence from the experimental and nonexperimental studies, which will allow for synthesis within a common framework. The long-term objective of the proposed research is to build upon the economist's study of human development by extending and uniting the research with the study of child development in the field of psychology. This translates into building economic models of skill formation that take into account cognitive and socioemotional skills, as well as models that recognize dynamic stages of the lifecycle. Another important long-term objective is to produce a framework that will allow policy analysts to place diverse interventions on a common footing, to compare their relative effectiveness, and to estimate the cost of later remediation for early disadvantage. The proposed research adheres to NIH's mission to seek fundamental knowledge about behavior, but more importantly it adds to the application of that knowledge in understanding the critical components of an effective intervention targeting populations such as pregnant mothers who smoke or low-birthweight infants.
| Heckman, James J; Humphries, John Eric; Veramendi, Gregory (2018) Returns to Education: The Causal Effects of Education on Earnings, Health, and Smoking. J Polit Econ 126:S197-S246 |
| García, Jorge Luis; Heckman, James J; Ziff, Anna L (2018) Gender Differences in the Benefits of an Influential Early Childhood Program. Eur Econ Rev 109:9-22 |
| Heckman, James J; Pinto, Rodrigo (2018) Unordered Monotonicity. Econometrica 86:35 |
| Heckman, James J; Humphries, John Eric; Veramendi, Gregory (2018) The Nonmarket Benefits of Education and Ability. J Hum Cap 12:282-304 |
| Landersø, Rasmus; Heckman, James J (2017) The Scandinavian Fantasy: The Sources of Intergenerational Mobility in Denmark and the US. Scand J Econ 119:178-230 |
| Hai, Rong; Heckman, James J (2017) Inequality in Human Capital and Endogenous Credit Constraints. Rev Econ Dyn 25:4-36 |
| Heckman, James J; García, Jorge Luís (2017) Social Policy: Targeting programs effectively. Nat Hum Behav 1: |
| Heckman, James J; Singer, Burton (2017) Abducting Economics. Am Econ Rev 107:298-302 |
| Borghans, Lex; Golsteyn, Bart H H; Heckman, James J et al. (2016) What grades and achievement tests measure. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 113:13354-13359 |
| Conti, Gabriella; Heckman, James; Pinto, Rodrigo (2016) The Effects of Two Influential Early Childhood Interventions on Health and Healthy Behaviour. Econ J (London) 126:F28-F65 |
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