Policy Interventions and Noncognitive Abilities of Children in Poor Areas: Effects and Mechanisms

Noncognitive abilities are the outcomes of long-term investments in education and health. Changes in these abilities are critical to both the future development of individuals and the accumulation of national human capital. However, little attention has been paid to the noncognitive abilities of children in poor areas of China. Based on the China Family Panel Studies data and the differences-in-differences method, this study takes the Chinese government's implementation of the National Development Plan for Children in Poor Areas (2014–2020) as an entry point to examine the effects and mechanisms of policy interventions on children's noncognitive abilities in poor areas. We find that policy interventions significantly improve the noncognitive abilities of children in poor areas, with the main mechanisms of influence coming from two main pathways: the guarantee of children's education and the improvement of children's health. Specifically, rural girls, rural children from families in distress and those from families with less-educated mothers were more sensitive to the policy and had more significant noncognitive improvement effects. After a series of robustness tests, these conclusions remain valid. This study enriches the corresponding research literature and provides useful policy insights on how to promote the holistic development of rural children in poor areas.