Child Care Before Age Two and the Development of Language and Numeracy: Evidence from a Lottery

Nina Drange () and Tarjei Havnes
Additional contact information
Nina Drange: Statistics Norway

No 8904, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Young children are thought to be vulnerable to separation from the primary caregiver/s. This raises concern about whether early child care enrollment may harm children's development. We use child care assignment lotteries to estimate the effect of child care starting age on early cognitive achievement in Oslo, Norway. Getting a lottery offer lowers starting age by about four months, from a mean of about 19 months in the control group. Lottery estimates show significant score gains for children at age seven. Survey evidence and an increase in labor supply of both mothers and fathers following the offer, suggest that parental care is the most relevant alternative mode of care. We document that the assignment lottery generates balance in observable characteristics, supporting our empirical approach.

Keywords: child development; early child care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2015-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Published - published as 'Early child care and cognitive development: Evidence from an assignment lottery' in: Journal of Labor Economics, 2019, 37 (2), 581 - 620

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Related works:
Working Paper: Child care before age two and the development of language and numeracy. Evidence from a lottery (2015)
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