Estimating the production function for human capital: Results from a randomized control trial in Colombia

We examine the channels through which a randomized early childhood intervention in Colombia led to significant gains in cognitive and socioemotional skills among a sample of disadvantaged children. We estimate production functions for cognitive and socio-emotional skills as a function of maternal skills and child’s past skills, as well as material and time investments that are treated as endogenous. The effects of the program can be fully explained by increases in parental investments, which have strong effects on outcomes and are complementary to both maternal skills and child’s past skills. ∗Attanasio: University College London and Institute for Fiscal Studies ([email protected]). Cattan: Institute for Fiscal Studies (sarah [email protected]). Fitzsimons: UCL Institute of Education and Institute for Fiscal Studies ([email protected]). Meghir: Yale University, NBER, IZA and Institute for Fiscal Studies ([email protected]). Rubio-Codina: Institute for Fiscal Studies and Inter-American Development Bank (marta [email protected]). We thank participants at the NBER Summer Institute, Barcelona GSE Summer Forum and Montreal CIREQ Applied Microeconomics on Fertility and Child Development and seminars at Stanford University, University of Chicago, Oxford University, Cornell University, Bristol University and the Institute for Fiscal Studies for their comments. We are grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant ES/G015953/1), the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Growth Centre, and the World Bank for funding the intervention and data collection. Some of this research was financed by the European Research Council’s Advanced Grant 249612 and by the Grand Challenges Canada Prime Award 0072-03 (sub-award reference number 560450). Sarah Cattan gratefully acknowledges financial assistance from the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship pf140104, as well as from the European Research Council’s Grant Agreement No. 240910. Costas Meghir thanks the Cowles foundation and the ISPS at Yale for financial assistance. All errors are the responsibility of the authors.