儿童早期学习微观动态的研究
A Study of the Microdynamics of Early-Childhood Learning
Journal of Political Economy · 2025 · [{"name": "James J. Heckman", "affiliation": ["University of Chicago"]}, {"name": "Jin Zhou", "affiliation": ["City University of Hong Kong"]}]
中文摘要
本文利用中国农村一个被广泛效仿的婴幼儿家访项目所提供的独特数据，考察了技能的周度演变。该研究设计避免了困扰以往研究的投入内生性问题以及缺乏可比技能测度的问题。名义上归为同一类别的技能，实际上在不同层级之间似乎并不共享共同的单位尺度。这些技能由特定于技能生命周期阶段的学习过程所产生。本文构建了一个适用于多种技能的新颖动态随机技能生产模型，与经验证据相一致。该模型通过技能的遗忘或折旧，解释了学习测度中的“衰退”现象。
Abstract
This paper investigates the weekly evolution of skills as measured by unique data from a widely-emulated early childhood home-visiting program in rural China. The design of the study avoids input endogeneity issues and lack of comparable measures of skills that plague previous studies. Skills, nominally classified as the same, in fact, do not appear to share a common unit scale across levels. They are produced by skill-lifecycle-stage-specific learning processes. A novel dynamic stochastic skill production model for multiple skills is developed, aligning with empirical evidence. The model explains the "fadeout" of measures of learning through forgetting or depreciation of skills.