Web Appendix : Ability, Character, and Social - Jorge Luis García

169 Pages·2014·3.51 MB·English

Web Appendix : Ability, Character, and Social Mobility∗
Jorge Luis Garc´ıa† James J. Heckman‡,§
September 28, 2014
∗TheresearchwassupportedinpartbytheAmericanBarFoundation, thePritzkerChildren’sInitiative,
the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, NIH grants NICHD R37HD065072 and R01HD54702, an anonymous
funder, a European Research Council grant (DEVHEALTH 269874), and a grant from the Institute for
New Economic Thinking (INET) to the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group
(HCEO),aninitiativeoftheBeckerFriedmanInstituteforResearchinEconomics(BFI).Theviewsexpressed
in this appendix are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funders or persons named here.
†Department of Economics, The University of Chicago ([email protected]).
‡The University of Chicago; American Bar Foundation; Institute for Fiscal Studies, University College
London ([email protected]).
§We thank Sneha Elango and Joshua Ka Chun Shea for outstanding research assistance.
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Contents
I Cognitive Ability and Character: A Review of the Evidence 9
I.0.1 Discarding Obsolete Notions and Embracing the Findings of Recent
Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
I.0.2 The Organization of the Rest of this Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
I.0.3 Cognitive Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
I.0.4 Measuring Character Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
I.0.5 A Task-Based Framework for Identifying and Measuring Skills . . . . 13
I.0.6 Measuring Skills Using Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
I.0.7 Are Character Skills Stable? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
I.0.8 Correlational Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
I.0.9 Evidence from the General Educational Development (GED) Program 23
I.1 The Skills Needed for Success in the Labor Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
II A Framework for Understanding Interventions 27
II.1 Summary of Empirical Evidence on the Efficacy of Interventions . . . . . . . 27
II.2 Early-Life Interventions that Begin Before Formal Schooling . . . . . . . . . 30
II.2.1 Infant Programs and Model Preschools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
II.2.2 Head Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
II.2.3 Chicago Child–Parent Center (CPC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
II.3 Education and Interventions in Kindergarten and Elementary School . . . . 39
II.3.1 Targeted Character Skill Interventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
II.4 Education and Interventions Targeted Toward Adolescents and Young Adults 47
II.4.1 Adolescent Mentorship Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
II.4.2 Residential-Based Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
II.4.3 Workplace-Based Adolescent Intervention Programs . . . . . . . . . . 54
II.5 Other Curricula that Have Been Applied to Multiple Age Groups . . . . . . 63
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II.5.1 Tools of the Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
II.5.2 Studies that Teach the Incremental Theory of Intelligence . . . . . . 63
II.5.3 Prevention vs. Remediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
II.6 TheEffectsofEducationandParentalInvestmentonCognitiveandCharacter
Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
II.7 Summary of the Intervention Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
IIIHow Far Can Early Childhood Interventions Go in Promoting Economic
and Social Opportunity? 74
III.1 Early Childhood Interventions: ABC and Perry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
III.1.1 ABC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
III.1.2 Perry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
III.2 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
III.2.1 How Disadvantaged are the Black-disadvantaged? . . . . . . . . . . . 80
III.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
III.3.1 Decomposition: Cognitive and Character Skills as Mediators . . . . . 90
III.3.2 Decomposition: Parenting as Mediator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
III.4 Decomposition: Parenting Behavior as Mediator of Later Life Outcomes . . . 111
III.4.1 ABC Full Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
III.4.2 ABC Restricted Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
III.4.3 Perry Full Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
III.4.4 Perry Restricted Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
III.5 Testing Coefficient Differences in the Treatment-Control Outcome Equations 123
III.5.1 Cognitive and Character Skills as Mediators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
III.5.2 Parenting as Mediator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
III.5.3 Parenting as Mediator of Later Life Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
IVMeasuring Cognitive and Character Skills 129
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IV.1 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
IV.2 Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
IV.2.1 ABC: Cognitive and Character Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
IV.2.2 ABC: Parenting Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
IV.2.3 Perry: Cognitive and Character Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
IV.2.4 Perry: Parenting Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
List of Tables
1 Summary of Effects for Main Interventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2 Summary of Effects of the Nurse-Family Partnership . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3 Summary of Treatment Effects from the Seattle Social Development Project 42
4 SummaryofTreatmentEffectsfromCareerAcademieswithin96-MonthFollow-
Up after Scheduled High School Graduation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5 Eligibility Criteria: Perry and ABC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6 Baseline Pre-treatment Variables for ABC & Perry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
7 Comparison of the Pretreatment Variables Across Groups . . . . . . . . . . . 80
8 ABC: Laspeyres Decomposition, Female . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
9 ABC: Laspeyres Decomposition, Male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
10 Perry: Laspeyres Decomposition, Female . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
11 Perry: Laspeyres Decomposition, Male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
12 Parenting Decomposition, ABC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
13 Parenting Decomposition, Perry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
14 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations ABC,
Female . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
15 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations ABC, Male124
16 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations ABC, All 125
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17 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations Perry,
Female . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
18 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations Perry,
Male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
19 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations Perry, All125
20 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations ABC,
Female . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
21 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations ABC, Male126
22 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations ABC, All 126
23 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations Perry,
Female . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
24 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations Perry,
Male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
25 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations Perry, All127
26 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations ABC,
Female . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
27 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations ABC, Male128
28 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations ABC, All 128
29 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations Perry,
Female . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
30 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations Perry,
Male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
31 Difference in Coefficients between Treatment and Control Equations Perry, All129
32 Defining Measures: Cognitive and Character Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
33 Defining Measures: Parenting Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
34 ABC Measurement Systems: Availability per Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
35 ABC Measurement Systems: Sources of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
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36 ABC Measurement Systems: Availability per Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
37 ABC Measurement Systems: Sources of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
38 Perry Measurement Systems: Availabilty per Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
39 Perry Measurement Systems: Sources of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
40 Perry Measurement Systems: Availabilty per Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
41 Perry Measurement Systems: Sources of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
List of Figures
1 Determinants of Task Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2 Decomposing Variance Explained for Achievement Tests and Grades into IQ
and Character Skills: Stella Maris Secondary School, Maastricht, Holland . . 16
3 Associations with Job Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4 Correlations of Mortality with Character Skills, IQ, and Socioeconomic Status
(SES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5 Distribution of Cognitive Ability by Educational Status (No College Sample,
All Ethnic Groups) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6 Hourly Wage Differences of GED Recipients and Traditional Graduates Com-
pared to Uncertified Dropouts—Ages 20–39 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7 Distribution of Character Skills by Education Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
8 Causal Effect of Schooling on ASVAB Measures of Cognition . . . . . . . . . 67
9 Causal Effect of Schooling on Two Measures of Character Skill . . . . . . . . 68
10 ABC Eligible - Full Population: Mother’s Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
11 Perry Eligible - Full Population: Mother’s Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
12 ABC Eligible - Full Population: Family Income at Baseline . . . . . . . . . . 84
13 Perry Eligible - Full Population: Family Income in 1979 . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
14 ABC Eligible - Blacks: Mother’s Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
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15 Perry Eligible - Blacks: Mother’s Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
16 ABC Eligible - Blacks: Family Income at Baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
17 Perry Eligible - Blacks: Family Income in 1979 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
18 Cognitive and Character Skills as Education and Employment Mediators,
ABC Females . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
19 Cognitive and Character Skills as Education and Employment Mediators,
ABC Males . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
20 Cognitive and Character Skills as Education and Employment Mediators,
ABC All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
21 Cognitive and Character Skills as Mediators, Perry Females . . . . . . . . . 95
22 Cognitive and Character Skills as Mediators, Perry Males . . . . . . . . . . . 96
23 Cognitive and Character Skills as Mediators, Perry All . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
24 Parenting Behavior as Cognitive and Character Skills Mediator, ABC Females 103
25 Parenting Behavior as Cognitive and Character Skills Mediator, ABC Males 104
26 Parenting Behavior as Cognitive and Character Skills Mediator, ABC All . . 105
27 Parenting Behavior as Congnitive and Character Skills Mediator, Perry Females106
28 Parenting Behavior as Congnitive and Character Skills Mediator, Perry Males 107
29 Parenting Behavior as Congnitive and Character Skills Mediator, Perry All 108
30 Parenting Behavior as Education and Employment Mediator, ABC Female . 112
31 Parenting Behavior as Education and Employment Mediator, ABC Male . . 113
32 Parenting Behavior as Education and Employment Mediator, ABC All . . . 114
33 Parenting Behavior as Education and Employment Mediator, ABC Female . 115
34 Parenting Behavior as Education and Employment Mediator, ABC Male . . 116
35 Parenting Behavior as Education and Employment Mediator, ABC All . . . 117
36 Parenting Behavior as Employment Mediator, Perry Female . . . . . . . . . 118
37 Parenting Behavior as Employment Mediator, Perry Male . . . . . . . . . . 119
38 Parenting Behavior as Employment Mediator, Perry All . . . . . . . . . . . 120
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39 Parenting Behavior as Employment Mediator, Perry Female . . . . . . . . . 121
40 Parenting Behavior as Employment Mediator, Perry Male . . . . . . . . . . 122
41 Parenting Behavior as Employment Mediator, Perry All . . . . . . . . . . . 123
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Ability, Character, and Social Mobility September 28, 2014
I Cognitive Ability and Character: A Review of the
Evidence
I.0.1 Discarding Obsolete Notions and Embracing the Findings of Recent Re-
search
Evidence from the social and biological sciences establishes the importance of the early years
in fostering the skills that promote human flourishing. Families do much more than pass on
their genes or put food on the table.
Human development is a dynamic process that starts in the womb. Environments and
skills interact to foster the development of later life skills and create who we are and what we
become. The foundations for adult success are laid down early in life. Many children raised
in disadvantaged environments start behind and stay behind. Poverty has lasting effects on
brain development, health, and cognitive and character skills.1 Gaps in skills emerge early,
before formal schooling begins. Waiting until kindergarten to address these gaps is a poor
strategy. It creates achievement gaps for disadvantaged children that are costly to close.
Family disadvantage is poorly assessed by conventional measures of poverty that focus
on family income, wealth, and parental education. The absence of parental guidance, nour-
ishment, and encouragement is the most damaging condition for child development. Quality
parenting—stimulation, attachment, encouragement, and support—is the true measure of
child advantage, and not the traditional measures of poverty commonly used in policy dis-
cussions.
Children from disadvantaged homes are much more likely to drop out of high school.
Single-parent families, compared to two-parent families, often give less cognitive and emo-
tional stimulation to their children (see, e.g., the evidence in Moon, 2012, 2014a), and as
a consequence their children have diminished cognitive and character skills.2 The evidence
1See, e.g., the evidence in Shonkoff and Phillips (2000) and Heckman (2008).
2See, e.g., Carneiro and Heckman (2003), Cunha, Heckman, Lochner, and Masterov (2006), and Cunha
and Heckman (2009).
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summarized in this section suggests that skill deficits can be prevented by improving the
early lives of disadvantaged children.
Yet, while important and often neglected in American public policy, the early years do
not fully determine adult success. Children are resilient and quality parenting throughout
childhood fosters the development and expression of skills. Schooling shapes both cognitive
and character skills. Certain adolescent remediation programs appear to be effective.
A variety of adolescent interventions attempt to remediate early-life skill deficits. Alter-
natives to the traditional high school curriculum provide potential dropouts with training
suitable to their interests and skills. Such programs can mold character skills, even if it is
not their primary goal. Other interventions attempt to directly remediate character deficits
after students drop out of school.
Heckman and Kautz (2014a,b) provide an account of what is known. They compare
different skill enhancement strategies and consider the features that make some programs
more successful than others. We summarize and update their analysis in this document.
Unfortunately, the field of human development is marred by overzealous advocates who
claim miracle fixes from their favored programs. These advocates focus on one slice of the
life cycle to the exclusion of others. Slogans often replace hard evidence. Most evaluations
of interventions have only short-term follow-ups. Many differ in their measures of outcomes
and skills and target different demographic groups, so it is difficult to compare alternative
programs. Despite these limitations, several studies suggest that interventions during the
preschool years or in kindergarten improve character skills in a lasting way, some with annual
rates of return that are comparable to those from investments in the stock market in normal
times.3 Several adolescent interventions are promising, particularly those that combine ed-
ucation with work-related experience.4 There are also some indications that programs that
provide information to adolescents can be effective.
3See Heckman, Moon, Pinto, Savelyev, and Yavitz (2010b). The rates of return incorporate the benefits
to individuals and to society.
4See, e.g., Kemple and Willner (2008) and Roder and Elliot (2011).
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