Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Doug Miller
Author-Name-First: Doug
Author-Name-Last: Miller
Author-Name: Jens Ludwig
Author-Name-First: Jens
Author-Name-Last: Ludwig
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of California Davis
Title: Does Head Start Improve Children?s Life Chances? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design
Abstract: This paper exploits a new source of variation in Head Start funding to identify the program's
 effects on health and schooling. In 1965 the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) provided
 technical assistance to the 300 poorest counties in the U.S. to develop Head Start funding
 proposals. The result was a large and lasting discontinuity in Head Start funding rates at the
 OEO cutoff for grant-writing assistance, but no discontinuity in other forms of federal social
 spending. We find evidence of a large negative discontinuity at the OEO cutoff in mortality rates
 for children ages 5-9 from causes that could be affected by Head Start, but not for other mortality
 causes or birth cohorts that should not be affected by the program. We also find suggestive
 evidence for a positive effect of Head Start on educational attainment in both the 1990 Census,
 concentrated among those cohorts born late enough to have been exposed to the program, and
 among respondents in the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988.
Length: 71
File-URL: https://repec.dss.ucdavis.edu/files/iEWtrmzNSYJ5xa658v4yuL6s/05-34.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Number: 54
Classification-JEL: I18, I20, I38
KeyWords: heat start, reform, labor
Creation-Date: 20050927
Handle: RePEc:cda:wpaper:54