Search

We study the impact of child work on cognitive development in four Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries. We advance the literature by using cognitive test scores collected regardless of school attendance. We also address a key gap in the literature by controlling for children's complete time allocation budget. This allows us to estimate effects of different types of work, like chores and market/farm work, relative to specific alternative time‐uses, like school or study or play/leisure. Our results show child work is more detrimental to child development to the extent that it crowds out school/study time rather than leisure. We also show the adverse effect of time spent on domestic chores is similar to time spent on market and farm work, provided they both crowd out school/study time. Thus, policies to enhance child development should target a shift from all forms of work toward educational activities.

Striking gender gaps persist in fundamental aspects of human welfare. In India, the setting of this paper, these gaps are particularly large. Interventions often target adolescent girls with the aim of empowering them to make choices that go against the status quo - to remain in school longer or marry later, for example. This approach may inadvertently expose girls, who are often marginalized within their communities, to new risks if it encourages them to violate prevailing gender norms. In this study, we design an experiment to compare the effectiveness of targeting only adolescent girls with an approach that additionally engages with the enforcers of gender norms in the wider community. We find that both arms of the trial led to a reduction in school dropout and early marriage. We see large improvements in girls' mental health but only in the arm which engages with the wider community. Improvements in mental health can be explained by community engagement causing gender norms to become more progressive and causing a reduction in the severity of sanctions that girls face for breaking norms. Both adolescent girls and their mothers perceived these shifts in norms and sanctions. Our results demonstrate that in settings where unequal outcomes are sustained through restrictive gender norms, change in the attitudes and behavior of the enforcers of these norms is critical for achieving meaningful improvements in womens well-being.

In this paper, we study the evolution of age-group- and gender-specific mortality and mortality inequality in England between 2003 and 2016, by comparing small geographic areas ranked by deprivation and grouped into bins of similar population size. We show that across all age groups, but especially in the older age groups (65+), there has been a clear and significant reduction in rates of mortality since 2003. In spite of these improvements, we continue to see significant inequalities in mortality across most age groups in 2016 and evidence of rising inequalities among women in the 65+ and men in the 80+ age groups. Furthermore, we see a striking stalling of the downwards trend in mortality and mortality inequality observed between 2003 and 2010 during the years of economic austerity in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis in England between 2010 and 2016. Analysis of specific causes of death among adults aged 20–79 allows us to examine the drivers and dynamics of these trends in more depth, as well as to consider scope for, and types of, interventions that would be appropriate at different ages.

This paper combines novel data on the time use, home‐learning practices and economic circumstances of families with children during the COVID‐19 lockdown with pre‐lockdown data from the UK Time Use Survey to characterise the time use of children and how it changed during lockdown, and to gauge the extent to which changes in time use and learning practices during this period are likely to reinforce the already large gaps in educational attainment between children from poorer and better‐off families. We find considerable heterogeneity in children's learning experiences – amount of time spent learning, activities undertaken during this time and availability of resources to support learning. Concerningly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, this heterogeneity is strongly associated with family income and in some instances more so than before lockdown. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that any impacts of inequalities in time spent learning between poorer and richer children are likely to be compounded by inequalities not only in learning resources available at home, but also in those provided by schools.

This paper uses a dataset from Tanzania with information on consumption, income, and income shocks within and across family networks. Crucially and uniquely, it also contains data on the degree of information existing between each pair of households within family networks. We use these data to construct a novel measure of the quality of information both at the level of household pairs and at the level of the network. We also note that the individual level measures can be interpreted as measures of network centrality. We study risk sharing within these networks and explore whether the rejection of perfect risk sharing that we observe can be related to our measures of information quality. We show that households within family networks with better information are less vulnerable to idiosyncratic shocks. Furthermore, we show that more central households within networks are less vulnerable to idiosyncratic shocks. These results have important implications for the characterisation of the empirical failure of the perfect risk-sharing hypothesis and point to the importance of information frictions.

IntroductionMany children in developing countries grow up in environments that lack stimulation, leading to deficiencies in early years of development. Several efficacy trials of early childhood care and education (ECCE) programmes have demonstrated potential to improve child development; evidence on whether these effects can be sustained once programmes are scaled is much more mixed. This study evaluates whether an ECCE programme shown to be effective in an efficacy trial maintains effectiveness when taken to scale by the Government of Ghana (GoG). The findings will provide critical evidence to the GoG on effectiveness of a programme it is investing in, as well as a blueprint for design and scale-up of ECCE programmes in other developing countries, which are expanding their investment in ECCE programmes.Methods and analysisThis study is a cluster randomised controlled trial, in which the order that districts receive the programme is randomised. A minimum sample of 3240 children and 360 schools will be recruited across 72 district school cohort pairs. The primary outcomes are (1) child cognitive and socioemotional development measured using the International Development and Early Learning Assessment tool, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and tasks from the Harvard Laboratory for Development Studies; (2) child health (measured using height/weight for age, height-for-weight Z scores). Secondary outcomes include (1) maternal mental health, (using Kessler-10 and Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale) and knowledge of ECCE practices; (2) teacher knowledge, motivation and teaching quality (measured with classroom observation); (3) parental investment (using the Family Care Index and Home Observation Measurement of the Environment and the Child–Parent Relationship Scale); (4) water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices; (5) acute malnutrition (using mid-upper arm circumference). We will estimate unadjusted and adjusted intent-to-treat effects.Ethics and disseminationStudy protocols have been approved by ethics boards at the University College London (21361/001), Yale University (2000031549) and Ghanaian Health Service Ethics Review Committee (028/09/21). Results will be made available to participating communities, funders, the wider public and other researchers through peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations, social and print media and various community/stakeholder engagement activities.Trial registration numberISRCTN15360698, AEARCTR-0008500.

Although there is a large gap between Black and White American life expectancies, the gap fell 48.9% between 1990 and 2018, mainly due to mortality declines among Black Americans. We examine age-specific mortality trends and racial gaps in life expectancy in high- and low-income US areas and with reference to six European countries. Inequalities in life expectancy are starker in the United States than in Europe. In 1990, White Americans and Europeans in high-income areas had similar overall life expectancy, while life expectancy for White Americans in low-income areas was lower. However, since then, even high-income White Americans have lost ground relative to Europeans. Meanwhile, the gap in life expectancy between Black Americans and Europeans decreased by 8.3%. Black American life expectancy increased more than White American life expectancy in all US areas, but improvements in lower-income areas had the greatest impact on the racial life expectancy gap. The causes that contributed the most to Black Americans’ mortality reductions included cancer, homicide, HIV, and causes originating in the fetal or infant period. Life expectancy for both Black and White Americans plateaued or slightly declined after 2012, but this stalling was most evident among Black Americans even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. If improvements had continued at the 1990 to 2012 rate, the racial gap in life expectancy would have closed by 2036. European life expectancy also stalled after 2014. Still, the comparison with Europe suggests that mortality rates of both Black and White Americans could fall much further across all ages and in both high-income and low-income areas.

Significance From 1990 to 2018, the Black–White American life expectancy gap fell 48.9% and mortality inequality decreased, although progress stalled after 2012 as life expectancy plateaued. Had improvements continued at the 1990 to 2012 rate, the racial gap in life expectancy would have closed by 2036. Despite decreasing mortality inequality, income-based life expectancy gaps remain starker in the United States than in European countries. At the same time, European mortality improved strongly and even those U.S. populations with the longest life spans–White Americans living in the highest-income areas–experience higher mortality at all ages than Europeans in high-income areas in 2018. Hence, mortality rates of both Black and White Americans could fall much further in both high-income and low-income areas., Although there is a large gap between Black and White American life expectancies, the gap fell 48.9% between 1990 and 2018, mainly due to mortality declines among Black Americans. We examine age-specific mortality trends and racial gaps in life expectancy in high- and low-income US areas and with reference to six European countries. Inequalities in life expectancy are starker in the United States than in Europe. In 1990, White Americans and Europeans in high-income areas had similar overall life expectancy, while life expectancy for White Americans in low-income areas was lower. However, since then, even high-income White Americans have lost ground relative to Europeans. Meanwhile, the gap in life expectancy between Black Americans and Europeans decreased by 8.3%. Black American life expectancy increased more than White American life expectancy in all US areas, but improvements in lower-income areas had the greatest impact on the racial life expectancy gap. The causes that contributed the most to Black Americans’ mortality reductions included cancer, homicide, HIV, and causes originating in the fetal or infant period. Life expectancy for both Black and White Americans plateaued or slightly declined after 2012, but this stalling was most evident among Black Americans even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. If improvements had continued at the 1990 to 2012 rate, the racial gap in life expectancy would have closed by 2036. European life expectancy also stalled after 2014. Still, the comparison with Europe suggests that mortality rates of both Black and White Americans could fall much further across all ages and in both high-income and low-income areas.

COVID-19 has uprooted many aspects of parents' daily routines, from their jobs to their childcare arrangements. In this paper, we provide a novel description of how parents in England living in two-parent opposite-gender families are spending their time under lockdown. We find that mothers' paid work has taken a larger hit than that of fathers', on both the extensive and intensive margins. We find that mothers are spending substantially longer in childcare and housework than their partners and that they are spending a larger fraction of their paid work hours having to juggle work and childcare. Gender differences in the allocation of domestic work cannot be straightforwardly explained by gender differences in employment rates or earnings. Very large gender asymmetries emerge when one partner has stopped working for pay during the crisis: mothers who have stopped working for pay do far more domestic work than fathers in the equivalent situation do.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a monumental blow to the education of English school children. Over the past 18 months, English school pupils experienced two long periods of nationwide school closures. The first round of universal school closures lasted 10 weeks (from 23 March to 1 June 2020); some pupils were not able to return to school until the start of September that year. This unprecedented action was repeated at the start of 2021, with pupils across England sent home for 9 weeks (from 5 January to 8 March 2021). Even when schools were open outside these periods, in-school provision was hampered by social distancing protocols, staff shortages and self-isolation. There is growing evidence that disruption during the pandemic has undermined children's education and increased inequalities between those from disadvantaged backgrounds and their better-off peers. So far, most of the evidence focuses on the initial period of school closures in Spring 2020. But as teachers and pupils start a new academic year, understanding how children's experiences changed over the course of the pandemic - and how these experiences differed for those from different backgrounds - will be an important step in assessing the extent of learning loss, and what can be done to help pupils to catch up.

This paper uses a dataset from Tanzania with information on consumption, income and income shocks within and across family networks. Crucially and uniquely, it also contains data on the degree of information existing between each pair of households within family networks gCrucially and uniquely, it also contains data on the level of information each pair of households has about each other within family networks. We use these data to construct a novel measure of the quality of information both at the level of household pairs and at the level of the network. We also note that the individual level measures can be interpreted as measures of network centrality. We study risk sharing within these networks and explore whether the rejection of perfect risk sharing that we observe can be related to our measures of information quality. We show that households within family networks with better information are less vulnerable to idiosyncratic shocks. Furthermore, we show that more central households within networks are less vulnerable to idiosyncratic shocks. These results have important implications for the characterisation of the empirical failure of the perfect risk sharing hypothesis and point to the importance of information frictions.

The COVID-19 school closures forced children and parents to make unprecedented changes to their daily routines. Including the summer holidays, most children will have had a five-and-a-half-month break from physically attending school by the time they returned in September. There has been considerable discussion of the challenges that home learning presents for some children, and the inequalities that it could lead to (Burgess and Vignoles, 2020; Education Endowment Foundation, 2020; Eyles, Gibbons and Montebruno, 2020). In this report, we present analysis of some of the first data on children's lives during the lockdown and how home learning during the lockdown worked in practice. Between 29 April and 20 June 2020, we interviewed over 5,500 parents with at least one child entering Reception in September 2020 or a child in school aged 4-15. We asked parents about their employment circumstances, as well as how they and their children spent their time during a weekday. We also asked about the resources (both from their schools and at home) that school-age children had available for home learning. We collaborated with an online survey company to ensure that our respondents came from a mix of genders, regions, and social and economic backgrounds. We then reweighted our data to ensure that they are as representative as possible of families with school-aged children in England.

We study the impact of child work on cognitive development in four Low- and Middle-Income Countries. We advance the literature by using cognitive test scores collected regardless of school attendance. We also address a key gap in the literature by controlling for children’s complete time allocation budget. This allows us to estimate effects of different types of work, like chores and market/farm work, relative to specific alternative time-uses, like school or study or play/leisure. Our results show child work is more detrimental to child development to the extent that it crowds out school/study time rather than leisure. We also show the adverse effect of time spent on domestic chores is similar to time spent on market and farm work, provided they both crowd out school/study time. Thus, policies to enhance child development should target a shift from all forms of work toward educational activities.

Global access to preschool has increased dramatically yet preschool quality is often poor. We use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate two approaches to improving the quality of Colombian preschools. We find that the first, which was rolled out nationwide and provides additional resources for materials and new staff, did not benefit children’s development and, unintentionally, led teachers to reduce their involvement in classroom activities. The second approach additionally trains teachers to improve their pedagogical methods. We find this addition offset the negative effects on teacher behavior, improved the quality of teaching and raised children’s cognition, language and school readiness. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

We study the impact of child work on cognitive development in four Low- and Middle-Income Countries. We advance the literature by using cognitive test scores collected regardless of school attendance. We also address a key gap in the literature by controlling for children’s complete time allocation budget. This allows us to estimate effects of different types of work, like chores and market/farm work, relative to specific alternative time-uses, like school or study or play/leisure. Our results show child work is more detrimental to child development to the extent that it crowds out school/study time rather than leisure. We also show the adverse effect of time spent on domestic chores is similar to time spent on market and farm work, provided they both crowd out school/study time. Thus, policies to enhance child development should target a shift from all forms of work toward educational activities.

This is a pre-analysis plan specifies analysis we plan to perform for the evaluation of PANKH: an intervention in Dhaulpur district, Rajasthan targeting marriage, education, mental health and socio-emotional skills of adolescent girls as well as gender attitudes of girls and their carers. Given the diverse range of outcomes covered the results of these analyses may be published separately. If we deviate from the methods set out in this document we will provide clear justifications and wherever possible will also publish per-plan analysis for comparison. This study evaluates two models of delivering the PANKH intervention: (i) Girls only model and (ii) Girls + Community model. This is a cluster randomised controlled trial across 90 clusters. Stratifying by the three study blocks we allocated 30 clusters to each to: (i) control, (ii) girls only model, (iii) girls + community model. Full details of interventions and study design are available in the baseline report.

This report presents a detailed overview of the baseline data collection activities as part of the project "Improving early childhood development in rural Ghana through scalable low-cost community-run play schemes''. The project is collaboration between The Institute for Fiscal Studies (UK), Lively Minds (UK, Ghana) and Innovations for Poverty Action (Ghana), and is funded by the Jacobs Foundation and Global Innovation Fund (GIF). The intervention is implemented by award-winning charity Lively Minds, and targets those in kindergarten in rural Northern Ghana, aged 4 and 5. It focuses on unlocking the potential of caregivers, both volunteer mothers and teachers, training and empowering them with the knowledge, skills and confidence to run educational Play Schemes within kindergarten and provide better care and stimulation at home, using local materials. A key feature of the programme is its scalability; it is low cost and requires only locally available human and physical resources and infrastructure for implementation. Having developed, trialled and refined the programme content and training materials, Lively Minds are focusing on adapting implementation to a model in which the Ghana Education Service (GES) and teachers themselves take key roles in ensuring the success of the programme. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has partnered with Innovations for Poverty Action in Ghana (IPA) to implement a rigorous evaluation of the impact of the Lively Minds programme. The evidence provided by this evaluation will be crucial for determining whether there is value in mainstreaming the programme across Ghana and replicating it in other countries. Further, we aim to generate evidence which will contribute more broadly to the state of knowledge on the development and scaling of ECCE interventions in low-income remote rural contexts.

Recent labour market research has shown that a good education comprises investment in both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. We examine the impact of a long-term programme designed to raise non-cognitive skills of children and adolescents in slums in Bombay. We use a cross-cutting design with two comparison groups of peers for young adults who have attended the programme until leaving high school to analyse whether, compared to those from a similar environment and background, enrolment in the programme demonstrably raises such skills. We find evidence of substantial impacts on both self-esteem and self-efficacy (of about one standard deviation), as well as evidence of a smaller impact on life evaluation and aspirations. Furthermore, in line with the literature, both self-esteem and self-efficacy are positively related to success in school-leaving examinations and initial labour market outcomes.

Personality traits are highly predictive of life outcomes and successes. However, little is known about their formation and what can hamper their development. There is ample evidence that conditions in early-life can have persistent influence on health and cognitive skills. In this paper, we ask whether this is also the case for the formation and development of personality traits. We find strong and robust evidence of persistent impacts among siblings of early-life rainfall fluctuations on measures of a latent personality trait, known as core self-evaluation, in adulthood. The results are driven by females, irrespective of the gender composition of siblings within the household. There is heterogeneity across households likely to have different levels of credit access, suggesting a household wealth mechanism; effects are strongest for households with lowest durable asset holdings. Effects on other outcomes in adulthood suggest that early life rainfall may impact adult core self-evaluation through health, schooling and wealth, although we cannot rule out reverse causality.

Este documento examina si los niños desfavorecidos aprenden menos que los niños aventajados cuando ambos tipos de niños están matriculados en la misma escuela para dos países en desarrollo, Vietnam y Perú. Esto se hace estimando las funciones de producción educativa que contienen dos efectos fijos escolares para cada escuela, uno para niños aventajados y uno para niños desfavorecidos. El documento examina seis definiciones diferentes de desventajas, basadas en el hogar riqueza, tener habilidades cognitivas bajas a los 5 años, género, grupo étnico minoritario (Perú solamente), educación materna y estado nutricional. Los resultados no muestran signos de discriminación contra los grupos desfavorecidos en Vietnam; de hecho, si algún grupo aventajado, los varones, parece tener peores resultados en la escuela que el grupo desfavorecido correspondiente, las mujeres. Por el contrario, en Perú, los estudiantes de minorías étnicas y los estudiantes que ingresan a la escuela primaria con baja capacidad cognitiva parecen aprender menos en la escuela que los estudiantes de mayoría étnica y los estudiantes relativamente altos.