81335 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database Giving Children a Better Start: Preschool Attendance and School-Age Profiles Author(s) Samuel Berlinski, Sebastian Galiani, Marco Manacorda Contact sberlinski@ucl.ac.uk Country Uruguay Organizing Theme Education and Skills Status The preschool interventions are ongoing, the analysis is complete Intervention Category Preschool Sector Education We study the effect of pre-primary education on children's subsequent school outcomes by exploiting a unique feature of the Uruguayan household survey (ECH) that collects retrospective information on preschool attendance in the context of a rapid expansion in the supply of pre-primary places. Using a within household estimator, we find small gains from preschool attendance at early ages that get magnified as children grow up. By age 15, Abstract treated children have accumulated 0.8 extra years of education and are 27 percentage points more likely to be in school compared to their untreated siblings. Instrumental variables estimates that attempt to control for non random selection of siblings into preschool lead to similar results. Pre-primary education appears as a successful and cost-effective policy to prevent early grade failure and its long lasting consequences in low income countries. Gender Connection Gender Informed Analysis Gender Outcomes Gender disaggregated school attendance, school attainment IE Design Instrumental Variable In 1995 the government started a rapid expansion of public preschool program. By 1999 Intervention 414 new classrooms had been built, mainly through addition to primary schools. Between 1995 and 2004 public enrollment grew from 49618 to 87236. Intervention Period The program began in 1995 The sample comes from the survey Encuesta Continue de Hoagres (ECH) which is a nationally representative survey covering about 18000 households each year. In 2001, the survey began collecting retrospective information on pre-school. The study focuses on Sample population individuals aged 7-15 who live in two parent famillies where all children are children of the head of household. The sample includes 23042 children over 5 years old, 90% of the sample attended at least one year of preschool. The study compares the outcomes of individuals who recall that they went to preschool to Comparison conditions those who recall that they did not go to preschool in a nationally representative survey many years after the intervention. Unit of analysis Student Level Last updated: 14 August 2013 1 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database Evaluation Period The study uses data from 2001-2005 There is a significant positive effect of preschool attendance on completed years of primary and secondary education. This works through both a fall in grade retention rates and a reduction in dropout rates as teenagers. The gains in attending preschool increase as Results children grow older. The impact of preschool is greater for children of mothers with low education. The impact of preschool is larger for boys than girls, however, the difference in impact between genders is not statistically significant. The greatest limitation of the study is there is no baseline data on the children. Thus the Primary study limitations study is based on ex-post recall of preschool attendance. Additionally, there was no randomization in preschool attendance, therefore, there may be selection bias. Funding Source Nuffield Foundation New Career Development Fellowship, ESRC DFID grant Berlinski, S., Galiani, S., & Manacorda, M. (2008). Giving children a better start: Preschool Reference(s) attendance and school-age profiles. Journal of Public Economics, 92(5), 1416-1440. Link to Studies http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272707001971 Microdata Last updated: 14 August 2013 2