Using a large administrative data set on all state schools in England, this paper studies the effect of free part-time preschool education at age 3 on child outcomes in primary school at ages 5 and 7. We use the staggered implementation of free preschool places across Local Education Authorities in England to identify 1) the effect of funding childcare places for 3-year-olds in nurseries and other registered settings on child outcomes, the effect of interest to policy makers; 2) the effect of attending preschool at age 3 on child outcomes. To control for selection into preschool, we instrument actual preschool attendance with the availability of free places. We find that a 10pp increase in the proportion of 3-year-olds covered by free places improves cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes at age 5 by 2-4% of a standard deviation, with larger effects for boys than girls and for children from higher than lower socio-economic backgrounds. By age 7 the positive effects have largely faded out. IV estimates indicate that a 10pp increase in the proportion of children attending preschool at age 3 improves age 5 outcomes by 5-12% of a standard deviation. Effects are larger for boys than girls and mostly fade out by age 7.
Presented by:
Birgitta Rabe (ISER)
Date & time:
March 5, 2014 1:00 pm
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