Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/196661 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12163
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper studies two experiments of early childhood development programs in The Gambia: one increasing access to services, and another improving service quality. In the first experiment, new community-based early childhood development (ECD) centers were introduced to randomly chosen villages that had no pre-existing structured ECD services. In the second experiment, a randomly assigned subset of existing ECD centers received intensive provider training. We find no evidence that either intervention improved average levels of child development. Exploratory analysis suggests that, in fact, the first experiment, which increased access to relatively low quality ECD services, led to declines in child development among children from less disadvantaged households. Evidence supports that these households may have been steered away from better quality early childhood settings in their homes.
Subjects: 
early childhood development
cognitive stimulation
teacher training
The Gambia
randomized control trials
Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool
JEL: 
I25
I38
O15
O22
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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