Study: “Family size and investments in early childhood development in Ecuador”
PI(s): Schady, Norbert
Co-PI(s): Paxson, Christina
Affiliation(s): World Bank
Project Dates:
Start: 2006
End: 2011
Data Source(s): Household Survey Data
Methods: Randomized Controlled Trial
Geographic Location(s): Ecuador

Description:
This research extends a longitudinal study in Ecuador that evaluated the impact of intervention programs which improve circumstances surrounding birth, maternal and child health, and parenting “quality” on child cognitive and physiological development. This project focuses on how family size interacts with the use of early childhood development (ECD) interventions and how it mediates the impact of those interventions on child cognitive outcomes. Some of the issues investigated include how children’s very early nutrition and health conditions affect their future outcomes, how these conditions relate to sibsize and parity, what child-specific investments parents make, and how the children do as they begin to enter school. The study found that a cash transfer program in rural Ecuador had positive, though modest effects on cognitive, physical and socio-emotional development of children, with larger effects among poorer children.

Research Outputs:

Paxson, Christina & Schady, Norbert. (2007). Does Money Matter? The Effects of Cash Transfers on Child Health and Development in Rural Ecuador (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4226).

Paxson, Christina & Schady, Norbert. (2010). Does Money Matter? The Effects of Cash Transfers on Child Development in Rural Ecuador. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 59(1): 187-229.