Author(s)
Daniela Del Boca, Chiara Monfardini, Sarah Grace See

Using data from OECD’s PISA, Eurostat and World Bank’s WDI, we explore how child cognitive outcomes at the aggregate country level are related to macroeconomic conditions, specifically government education expenditures and early education experience. We find that both government expenditures in education and attendance to early child care are associated with better later school performance. We also consider different childcare characteristics such as duration and quality, which appear to have significant effects Our results may imply that policies encouraging childcare expansion should also take into account quality issues.

JEL Codes
I26: Returns to Education
H52: National Government Expenditures and Education
J24: Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Keywords
early childcare and education
school performance
test scores
early childhood education