Author(s)
Francesco Agostinelli, Morteza Saharkhiz, Matthew Wiswall

We develop a uni ed empirical framework for child development which nests the key features of two previously parallel research programs, the Child Development literature and the Education Production Function literature. Our framework allows for mis-measured cognitive and non-cognitive skills, classroom effects, parental in uences, and complementarities. Although both are important, we estimate that differential parental investments are the more important source of end-of-kindergarten inequality than classroom quality. Quality classrooms have a larger effect on children entering kindergarten with skill de cits. Our estimated model replicates out-of-sample patterns by excluded race and family income variables and experimental results from the Tennessee STAR experiment.

JEL Codes
I21: Analysis of Education
J13: Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Keywords
Child Development; School; Parents; Education Production Function; Child Development; Skill Formation; Value-added; Latent Factor Models; Skill Production Technology