Augmenting State Capacity for Child Development: Experimental Evidence from India

We use a large-scale randomized experiment to study the impact of augmenting staffing in world’s largest public early childhood program: India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Adding half-time worker doubled net preschool instructional time and led 0.29σ 0.46σ increases math language test scores after 18 months for children who remained enrolled program. Rates stunting severe malnutrition were also lower treatment group. A cost-benefit analysis suggests that benefits ICDS are likely significantly exceed its costs even under conservative assumptions.