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The Experimental Economics of Parenting: Evidence from Rural China

Early childhood—the period in utero to age five when neural and behavioral plasticity is highest—is a sensitive and critical period for skill development. Exposure to environmental risk factors (e.g., malnutrition or a lack of cognitive stimulation) during this early stage of life may lead to large inequalities in the opportunity for human development. An estimated 250 million (or 43%) of the children below the age of five in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is at risk of developmental delay due to environmental risk factors. A substantial body of cross-disciplinary research highlights that such early delays are associated with decreased cognitive and social-emotional functioning in adulthood, which can manifest itself, inter alia, in lower adult wages or higher crime rates. Hence, investing in the opportunity for development of disadvantaged children is crucial to give these children a fair chance in life; improve intergenerational mobility; and to build and accumulate human capital—a key driver for economic growth. 

A child’s opportunity for development depends largely on caregivers’ investment in the home and early learning environment. It is well established in the intervention literature that increased parental investment in the early home environment is causally linked to better cognitive skill development in the short run; and to lasting effects on a range of lifelong human capital outcomes including improved academic attainment and adult labor productivity. Moreover, the intervention literature has provided convincing evidence of the positive impact of parenting training on parental investment and early child development (ECD) outcomes in LMICs. A widely advocated intervention study with long-term follow-up—the Jamaican Nutrition and Cognitive Stimulation Program—found effects of a parenting training program on ECD outcomes in the short run and on a range of adult human capital outcomes (e.g., academic attainment and lifetime earnings) in the long run. The promising results of this pioneering study incentivized researchers and policymakers to implement similar programs in different contexts and at scale. Over the past twenty years, interventions confirmed program effectiveness on parental investments and ECD outcomes in a range of LMICs. As a result, policymakers in LMICs no longer debate the effectiveness of parenting training programs, but rather how such ECD services can be delivered cost-effectively and at scale .

This thesis combines unique large-scale field data from rural China with innovative analysis methods in order to provide new evidence on how to better design and implement parenting training programs cost-effectively and at scale. The remainder of this thesis is structured as follows. Chapter 1 reviews the economic literature on the effectiveness and mechanisms of parenting training experiments. Chapter 2 studies whether integration of different program components (i.e., psychosocial stimulation and health promotion) can lead to gains in cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, this chapter tests whether community health workers can effectively deliver such integrated parenting training program.[1] Chapter 3 studies dynamics in the technology of capability formation.  We find novel evidence of dynamic complementarity between first-year capability formation and two-year productivity of parental investments.[2] Chapter 4 studies the effectiveness and mechanisms of a government-led parenting training program. We find that a government-led program can effectively lead to improvements in child skill formation and parental investment. Furthermore, we observe that center-based service delivery leads to gains in cost-effectiveness. However, complementing a predominantly center-based program with home visits for the most disadvantaged children is important to secure inclusiveness.[3] 

 

[1] Chapter 2 is joint work with Renfu Luo, Nele Warrinnier, Scott Rozelle, and Sean Sylvia. It is published in Social Science & Medicine, volume 239, October 2019, 112545.

[2] Chapter 3 is joint work with Renfu Luo, Scott Rozelle, and Sean Sylvia.

[3] Chapter 4 is joint work with Yu Bai, Ying Li, Yaojiang Shi, Susan C. Song, and Lei Tang.

Date:1 Oct 2016 →  4 Jan 2021
Keywords:Rural China, Early Childhood Development, Human Capital, Parental Investment, Experimental Economics, Economics of Parenting
Disciplines:Agriculture, land and farm management, Applied economics, Economic development, innovation, technological change and growth
Project type:PhD project