Does money really matter? Estimating impacts of family income on young children's achievement with data from random-assignment experiments.
Social scientists do not agree on the size and nature of the causal impacts of parental
income on children's achievement. We revisit this issue using a set of welfare and
antipoverty experiments conducted in the 1990s. We utilize an instrumental variables
strategy to leverage the variation in income and achievement that arises from random
assignment to the treatment group to estimate the causal effect of income on child
achievement. Our estimates suggest that a $1,000 increase in annual income increases …
income on children's achievement. We revisit this issue using a set of welfare and
antipoverty experiments conducted in the 1990s. We utilize an instrumental variables
strategy to leverage the variation in income and achievement that arises from random
assignment to the treatment group to estimate the causal effect of income on child
achievement. Our estimates suggest that a $1,000 increase in annual income increases …
Abstract
Social scientists do not agree on the size and nature of the causal impacts of parental income on children's achievement. We revisit this issue using a set of welfare and antipoverty experiments conducted in the 1990s. We utilize an instrumental variables strategy to leverage the variation in income and achievement that arises from random assignment to the treatment group to estimate the causal effect of income on child achievement. Our estimates suggest that a $1,000 increase in annual income increases young children's achievement by 5%–6% of a standard deviation. As such, our results suggest that family income has a policy-relevant, positive impact on the eventual school achievement of preschool children.(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
American Psychological Association