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Articles 1 - 30 of 63
Full-Text Articles in Early Childhood Education
Close To Home? Five Key Facts About Child Care Customer And Worker Commutes, Gabrielle Pepin, Jonathan Borowsky, Elizabeth E. Davis, Aaron Sojourner
Close To Home? Five Key Facts About Child Care Customer And Worker Commutes, Gabrielle Pepin, Jonathan Borowsky, Elizabeth E. Davis, Aaron Sojourner
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Parents often cite location and convenience as important factors in choosing a child care provider. We use data on individual mobility from GPS in cell phones to study commutes to each licensed early childhood care and education (ECE) provider in 14 states separately for center customers, center workers, and customers of home-based child care providers. We document five key facts about ECE customer and worker commutes. One, center customers and workers commute farther than home-based customers to ECE providers. Two, substantial shares of customers and workers commute 10+ miles to their ECE provider. Three, commute distances to ECE providers vary …
Solving Affordability Challenges In Education, Housing And Childcare, Brad J. Hershbein, Michelle Miller-Adams, Brian J. Asquith, Chloe R. Gibbs
Solving Affordability Challenges In Education, Housing And Childcare, Brad J. Hershbein, Michelle Miller-Adams, Brian J. Asquith, Chloe R. Gibbs
Presentations
These three presentations emphasize that affordability challenges across education, housing, and childcare stem from structural market and policy frictions, and that effective solutions require coordinated public investment, simplified systems, and attention to both supply and demand. The first presentation argues that while college tuition growth has slowed and aid has increased, affordability challenges persist due to complexity, misperceptions, and uneven costs, and it advocates for simple tuition-free programs combined with investments in advising, streamlined pathways, and stronger school-to-work connections. The second presentation highlights a growing housing affordability crisis in the Rust Belt driven by aging housing stock and limited supply, …
Caregiving For Older Adults: How The Child And Dependent Care Credit Could Help, Gabrielle Pepin, Yulya Truskinovsky
Caregiving For Older Adults: How The Child And Dependent Care Credit Could Help, Gabrielle Pepin, Yulya Truskinovsky
Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs
No abstract provided.
How To Design A State Child And Dependent Care Tax Credit That Works, Gabrielle Pepin
How To Design A State Child And Dependent Care Tax Credit That Works, Gabrielle Pepin
Reports
High care costs for children and older adults put an increasing strain on American families, often pushing caregivers out of the workforce. While investments in affordable care deliver lasting benefits for families, employers, and the economy, the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) falls short—leaving states well positioned to make a difference. This Policy Blueprint highlights three ways the CDCTC fails families, and three solutions for designing a state tax credit that can help.
More Hours, More Work: Head Start Expansions Boost Maternal Employment, Chloe R. Gibbs, Esra Kose, Maria Rosales Rueda
More Hours, More Work: Head Start Expansions Boost Maternal Employment, Chloe R. Gibbs, Esra Kose, Maria Rosales Rueda
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Women’s employment remains highly sensitive to childcare constraints, making childcare availability a critical lever for supporting mothers’ labor force attachment. We study the effects of expanded full-day programming in Head Start, using the 2016 federal funding initiative that targeted grantees with low full-day enrollment. Linking administrative program data, geo-coded center locations, and household data on employment, we estimate a difference-in-differences design by comparing mothers of young children in treated and untreated areas. The policy increased full-day enrollment by 19 percent and raised single mothers’ employment (1.9%), hours (2.5%), and earnings (6.5%). Results show that extending program duration meaningfully improves maternal …
Early Learning Across Decades: Advances In Measuring Head Start Effectiveness, Chloe R. Gibbs
Early Learning Across Decades: Advances In Measuring Head Start Effectiveness, Chloe R. Gibbs
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
The Head Start program, launched in 1965 and targeted to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, remains the largest early childhood care and education (ECE) program in the United States and the only one deployed at the federal level. As such, the Head Start literature spans several decades and now allows for synthesis of findings from different contexts, time periods, and research designs. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the rigorous evidence measuring Head Start’s effects on children, their families, and society. The focus is on how (1) the contrast between program and counterfactual conditions, (2) takeup of the program among …
Short-Run Fiscal Effects Of Expanding Michigan's Preschool Program To Be Universal, Timothy J. Bartik
Short-Run Fiscal Effects Of Expanding Michigan's Preschool Program To Be Universal, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
This policy paper provides some updated estimates of the short-run fiscal effects of expanding Michigan’s state-funded preschool program, the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), to encompass universal access for Michigan’s four-year-olds. This is an update to Policy Paper No. 2025-034, which analyzed the economic and fiscal effects of Michigan’s current GSRP program as compared to the state having no program. The update takes advantage of a high-quality recent study of the economic effects of universal preschool programs in nine states, authored by Jackson, Turner, and Bastian (2025). Using the estimated economic effects of universal preschool from this recent study, …
Short-Run Economic Effects Of Michigan's State-Funded Preschool Programs, Timothy J. Bartik
Short-Run Economic Effects Of Michigan's State-Funded Preschool Programs, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
This policy paper estimates the short-run economic effects of the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Michigan’s state-funded preschool program for 4-year-olds. The paper considers 15year effects on state residents’ per capita incomes due to impacts on employment rates and real wages, as well as cost-savings from free preschool and fiscal benefits due to tax base expansion. These 15-year effects ignore the program’s outcomes for child participants and focus on how the Michigan economy is affected by GSRP’s direct impacts on parents and preschool teachers. The estimates use a regional econometric model of a state’s economy, developed originally to evaluate economic …
What Is The Value Of The Child And Dependent Care Credit?, Gabrielle Pepin
What Is The Value Of The Child And Dependent Care Credit?, Gabrielle Pepin
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
The Child and Dependent Care Credit (CDCC) subsidizes child care costs for working families. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 increased the CDCC’s generosity during 2021 only. I find that while the CDCC is of relatively little value in its current form, increases in eligibility rates and conditional benefits under the pandemic expansion increased the credit’s value dramatically. Conditional on CDCC eligibility, higher-income households experienced the largest increases in benefit levels under the expanded CDCC, but lower-income households benefited disproportionately when measuring benefits as a share of income or child care spending.
Financial Incentives For Adoption And Kin Guardianship Improve Achievement For Foster Children, David Simon, Aaron Sojourner, Jon Pedersen, Heidi Ombisa Skallet
Financial Incentives For Adoption And Kin Guardianship Improve Achievement For Foster Children, David Simon, Aaron Sojourner, Jon Pedersen, Heidi Ombisa Skallet
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Difference-in-differences analysis of linked administrative data estimates effects of a Minnesota policy change that increased the payments to adoptive parents and kin guardians for children ages 6 and older, making them equal to what foster care payments were, but didn’t for younger children. Equalizing payments raised average academic achievement by 31 percent of a standard deviation three years after foster children’s cases started, raised the value of payments by about $2,000 per child during this period, raised the monthly chance of moving from foster care to adoption or kin guardianship by 29 percent, improved school stability, and reduced school suspensions.
From Stimulus To Sustainability: Reckoning With Community Prosperity Post-Arpa, Kathleen Bolter, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Michelle Miller-Adams, Bridget Timmeney, Kyle Huisman, Alfonso Hernandez
From Stimulus To Sustainability: Reckoning With Community Prosperity Post-Arpa, Kathleen Bolter, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Michelle Miller-Adams, Bridget Timmeney, Kyle Huisman, Alfonso Hernandez
Reports
No abstract provided.
Bridging Research And Practice To Achieve Community Prosperity, Kathleen Bolter, Michelle Miller-Adams, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Kyle Huisman, Bridget Timmeney, Brian J. Asquith, Gabrielle Pepin, Lee Adams, Jessica Brown, Gerrit Anderson, Allison Colosky
Bridging Research And Practice To Achieve Community Prosperity, Kathleen Bolter, Michelle Miller-Adams, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Kyle Huisman, Bridget Timmeney, Brian J. Asquith, Gabrielle Pepin, Lee Adams, Jessica Brown, Gerrit Anderson, Allison Colosky
Reports
No abstract provided.
A Benefit-Cost Analysis Of Tulsa Pre-K, Based On Effects On High School Graduation And College Attendance, Timothy J. Bartik, William T. Gormley, Sara Amadon, Douglas Hummel-Price, James Fuller
A Benefit-Cost Analysis Of Tulsa Pre-K, Based On Effects On High School Graduation And College Attendance, Timothy J. Bartik, William T. Gormley, Sara Amadon, Douglas Hummel-Price, James Fuller
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
This paper presents new benefit-cost estimates for the Tulsa universal pre–K program. These calculations are based on estimated effects, from two recent papers, of Tulsa pre–K on high school graduation rates and college attendance rates of students who were in kindergarten in the fall of 2006. In the current paper, educational effects from these prior papers are used to infer lifetime earnings effects. Our conservative estimates suggest that per pre–K participant, the present value of earnings effects in 2021 dollars is $25,533, compared with program costs of $9,628, for a benefit-cost ratio of 2.65. Compared to prior benefit-cost studies of …
The Long-Run Effects Of High-Quality Pre-K: What Does The Research Show?, Timothy J. Bartik
The Long-Run Effects Of High-Quality Pre-K: What Does The Research Show?, Timothy J. Bartik
Testimonies
No abstract provided.
Long-Run Effects Of High-Quality Pre-K: What Does Research Show?, Timothy J. Bartik
Long-Run Effects Of High-Quality Pre-K: What Does Research Show?, Timothy J. Bartik
Presentations
High-quality pre-K results in long-run effects of higher educational attainment, lower crime, and higher earnings for former child participants as adults.
The Economic And Business Case For Ensuring High-Quality Childcare And Preschool, Timothy J. Bartik
The Economic And Business Case For Ensuring High-Quality Childcare And Preschool, Timothy J. Bartik
Presentations
No abstract provided.
A Moment Of Opportunity: Strategies For Inclusive Economic Growth, Michelle Miller-Adams, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein
A Moment Of Opportunity: Strategies For Inclusive Economic Growth, Michelle Miller-Adams, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein
Upjohn Institute Technical Reports
No abstract provided.
Pre-K In The Public Schools: Evidence From Within U.S. States, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein
Pre-K In The Public Schools: Evidence From Within U.S. States, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
In the past 15 years, four-year-olds’ enrollment in state-funded pre-kindergarten in the United States has doubled, and advocates have pushed for further expansion. Although research has shown that pre-K programs can have important benefits, most existing studies have focused on small or state-specific programs that may not generalize to other areas or contexts. The uniqueness of our paper is its scope: our data cover the last two decades, span nearly all states, and allow for intrastate variation. For the average state program, we find no evidence of effects on the average student’s test scores, assignment to special education, or grade …
Pre-K Effectiveness At A Large Scale, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein
Pre-K Effectiveness At A Large Scale, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein
Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs
No abstract provided.
Pre-K Effectiveness At A Large Scale, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein
Pre-K Effectiveness At A Large Scale, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein
Employment Research Newsletter
No abstract provided.
Early Childhood Education And Local Economic Development, Timothy J. Bartik
Early Childhood Education And Local Economic Development, Timothy J. Bartik
Presentations
No abstract provided.
A Benefit-Cost Analysis Of The Tulsa Universal Pre-K Program, Timothy J. Bartik, Jonathan A. Belford, William T. Gormley, Sara Anderson
A Benefit-Cost Analysis Of The Tulsa Universal Pre-K Program, Timothy J. Bartik, Jonathan A. Belford, William T. Gormley, Sara Anderson
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
In this paper, benefits and costs are estimated for a universal pre-K program, provided by Tulsa Public Schools. Benefits are derived from estimated effects of Tulsa pre-K on retention by grade 9. Retention effects are projected to dollar benefits from future earnings increases and crime reductions. Based on these estimates, Tulsa pre-K has benefits exceeding costs by about 2-to-1. This benefit cost ratio is far less than the benefit-cost ratios (ranging from 8-to-1 to 16-to-1) for more targeted and intensive pre-K programs from the 1970s and 80s, such as Perry Preschool and the Chicago Child-Parent Center (CPC) program. Comparing benefit-cost …
Returns To Large-Scale Public School Pre-K Programs: Evidence From Within All States, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein
Returns To Large-Scale Public School Pre-K Programs: Evidence From Within All States, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein
Presentations
No abstract provided.
From Preschool To Prosperity: The Economic Payoff To Early Childhood Education, Timothy J. Bartik
From Preschool To Prosperity: The Economic Payoff To Early Childhood Education, Timothy J. Bartik
Presentations
No abstract provided.
Preschool And Prosperity, Timothy J. Bartik
Preschool And Prosperity, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
Substantial research shows that high-quality early childhood education programs have a large economic payoff. This payoff is increased earnings for former child participants, increased earnings for parents, and increased earnings for all workers when average worker skills improve. A program package of universal pre-K, combined with child care and parenting support for all low-income families, would cost $80 billion annually. But each dollar invested in this package would yield future economic benefits of over 10 times as great.
From Preschool To Prosperity: The Economic Payoff To Early Childhood Education, Timothy J. Bartik
From Preschool To Prosperity: The Economic Payoff To Early Childhood Education, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Press
Bartik shows that investment in high-quality early childhood education has several long-term benefits, including higher adult earnings for program participants.
Preschool Teaching At A Crossroads, Marcy Whitebook
Preschool Teaching At A Crossroads, Marcy Whitebook
Employment Research Newsletter
No abstract provided.
Effects Of The Pre-K Program Of Kalamazoo County Ready 4s On Kindergarten Entry Test Scores: Estimates Based On Data From The Fall Of 2011 And The Fall Of 2012, Timothy J. Bartik
Effects Of The Pre-K Program Of Kalamazoo County Ready 4s On Kindergarten Entry Test Scores: Estimates Based On Data From The Fall Of 2011 And The Fall Of 2012, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper uses a regression discontinuity model to examine the effects on kindergarten entrance assessments of the Kalamazoo County Ready 4s (KC Ready 4s) program, a half-day pre-K program for four-year-olds in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. The results are based on test scores and other characteristics of up to 220 children participating in KC Ready 4s, with data coming from both 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 participants in the program. The estimates find consistently statistically significant effects of this pre-K program on improving entering kindergartners’ math test scores. Some estimates also suggest marginally statistically significant effects of KC Ready 4s on vocabulary test …
Local Economic Benefits Of Early Childhood Programs: Investing In Kids, Timothy J. Bartik
Local Economic Benefits Of Early Childhood Programs: Investing In Kids, Timothy J. Bartik
Presentations
No abstract provided.
State Economic Development Policies: What Works?, Timothy J. Bartik
State Economic Development Policies: What Works?, Timothy J. Bartik
Presentations
No abstract provided.