典型家访项目对儿童技能的影响
The Impact of a Prototypical Home Visiting Program on Child Skills
Journal of Labor Economics · 2024 · [{"name": "Jin Zhou", "affiliation": ["University of Chicago"]}, {"name": "James J. Heckman", "affiliation": ["University of Chicago"]}, {"name": "Bei Liu", "affiliation": ["China Development Bank"]}, {"name": "Lu Mai", "affiliation": ["China Development Bank"]}]
中文摘要
本文利用一项随机对照实验的数据，估计了对儿童技能的因果影响以及产生这些影响的机制。我们研究了一个被广泛效仿的儿童早期家访项目，并表明其大规模复制的可行性。我们不仅报告以未加权题项得分表示的处理效应，还评估题项难度。为解释处理效应，我们估计了个体层面的潜在技能，并比较处理组与对照组。该项目显著改善了多项技能。我们分解了处理效应的来源，发现潜在技能的提升解释了语言和认知方面大部分传统的处理效应。
Abstract
This paper estimates the causal impacts on child skills and the mechanisms producing these impacts using data from a randomized control experiment. We study a widely emulated early-childhood home visiting program and show the feasibility of replicating it at scale. We go beyond reporting treatment effects as unweighted item scores and assess item difficulties. To interpret treatment effects, we estimate individual-level latent skills and compare treatments and controls. The program substantially improves multiple skills. We decompose the source of treatment effects and find that enhancements in latent skills explain most of the conventional treatment effects for language and cognition.