| By: |
Norbert Schady (Inter-American Development Bank (IDB));
Jere Behrman (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania);
Maria Caridad Araujo (World Bank Group; Inter-American Development Bank (IDB));
Rodrigo Azuero (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania);
Raquel Bernal (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia - Department of Economics; Northwestern University - Department of Economics);
David Bravo (Department of Economics, Universidad de Chile);
Florencia López Bóo (Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); IZA);
Karen Macours (Paris School of Economics);
Daniela Marshall (Populations Study Center, University of Pennsylvania);
Christina Paxson (Office of the Dean, Brown University);
Renos Vakis (District of Columbia, Washington DC, The World Bank) |
| Abstract: |
Research from the United States shows that gaps in early cognitive and
non-cognitive ability appear early in the life cycle. Little is known about
this important question for developing countries. This paper provides new
evidence of sharp differences in cognitive development by socioeconomic status
in early childhood for five Latin American countries. To help with
comparability, we use the same measure of receptive language ability for all
five countries. We find important differences in development in early
childhood across countries, and steep socioeconomic gradients within every
country. For the three countries where we can follow children over time, there
are few substantive changes in scores once children enter school. Our results
are robust to different ways of defining socioeconomic status, to different
ways of standardizing outcomes, and to selective non-response on our measure
of cognitive development. |
| Keywords: |
early childhood, socioeconomic gaps, Latin-American |
| JEL: |
J13 I38 |
| Date: |
2014–01–16 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:14-010&r=neu |