Zur Effizienz Früher Hilfen: Forschungsdesign und erste Ergebnisse eines randomisierten kontrollierten Experiments

Abstract

For efficiency reasons, the policy-mix of publicly financed educational measures should be adapted to novel insights into their private and social returns. Early childhood interventions are targeted to children in socially disadvantaged environments, beginning as soon as possible, ideally before birth. The developing theory of skill formation predicts high social returns for this kind of human capital policy. To provide evidence for this, a randomized controlled experiment is conducted. Object of investigation is the Pro Kind project which is targeted to first time mothers in economically and socially disadvantaged environments. Early results show that the project reaches its target group and that the poor environments lead to retarded development, measured by head circumference. First, preliminary results include an effect of treatment on boy's birth weight and body length at birth. Further research in later stages of development is needed to explore the efficiency of early childhood interventions in Germany.