A Note on Preschool-Age Investment in Human Capital in Developing Countries

Abstract

The character of the output of schools in developing countries depends largely on a single input, specifically, the characteristics of the children entering the schools. The relevance of public investment in preschool programs in developing countries rests on evidence indicating the acceleration of the rate of enrollment in primary schools by children from poor socioeconomic backgrounds, low performance records of such children, the crucial role of environment in childhood development, and the role of malnutrition in poor performance. Analysis of the contribution of preschool-age public policies to a vector of cognitive and noncognitive performance at adult age requires empirical evidence concerning the contribution of the child's ability upon entering school to performance at adult age, the coefficients of the explanatory variables of expression that can be affected by public policy, and the resource cost of inducing changes in the variables affecting adult performance per unit change in adult performance. Numerous references.