Bryan Caplan will feel vindicated:
This paper asks whether universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) increases parental income and how important these effects are in assessing the economic returns to UPK programs. Using a randomized lottery design, we estimate the effects of enrollment in a full-day UPK program in New Haven, Connecticut on parental labor market outcomes and educational costs and children’s academic performance. During children’s pre-kindergarten years, UPK enrollment increases weekly child care by 11 hours. Enrollment has a limited effect on educational outcomes for children between kindergarten and 8th grade, likely due to a combination of the immediate fading effect and substitution with other programs of similar quality but with shorter days. In contrast, parents work more hours, and their income increases by 21.7%. Parental income benefits continue for at least six years after the end of pre-kindergarten. Excluding the effects on children, each dollar of total government spending generates $5.51 in after-tax benefits for families, almost entirely in benefits received by parents. This return is large compared to other labor market policies. In contrast, without parental income benefits, each dollar of surplus government spending yields only $0.46 to $1.32 in benefits, lower than many other education and child health interventions. We conclude that the economic return on investment in UPK is high, primarily due to the effectiveness of full-day UPK as an effective labor market policy.
Here’s another takeaway from Note how these externalities end up being internalized in higher incomes for parents, so at least in this data set there’s no obvious case of public provision of some funding.
Source link