This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. Search Results
  5. Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia

  • Orazio Attanasio
  • Sarah Cattan
  • Emla Fitzsimons
  • Costas Meghir
  • Marta Rubio-Codina
American Economic Review
vol. 110, no. 1, January 2020
(pp. 48–85)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

We examine the channels through which a randomized early childhood intervention in Colombia led to significant gains in cognitive and socio-emotional skills among a sample of disadvantaged children aged 12 to 24 months at baseline. We estimate the determinants of parents' material and time investments in these children and evaluate the impact of the treatment on such investments. We then estimate the production functions for cognitive and socio-emotional skills. The effects of the program can be explained by increases in parental investments, emphasizing the importance of parenting interventions at an early age.

Citation

Attanasio, Orazio, Sarah Cattan, Emla Fitzsimons, Costas Meghir, and Marta Rubio-Codina. 2020. "Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia." American Economic Review, 110 (1): 48–85. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20150183

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • I24 Education and Inequality
  • I28 Education: Government Policy
  • J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
  • J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
  • O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration