Parental Investments and Early Childhood Development: Short and Long Run Evidence from India

The overall impacts of early childhood programs depend on the indirect impacts that arise due to intra-household reallocation of parental investments. Using historical administrative data from the rollout of the largest early childhood development program in the world, I find that adults exposed to the program when young showed significant improvements in various measures of health, education, and labor market outcomes. Parents reallocated their investments toward children exposed to an increase in program intensity, as evidenced by negative spillovers on siblings. Accounting for the negative spillovers on siblings reduces the internal rate of return of the program by 9%.