RT Journal Article
T1 Does preschool education attendance matter? Evidence from a natural experiment in Spain
A1 Santín González, Daniel
A1 Sicilia, Gabriela
AB The non-compulsory and non-free of charge character of preschool education level before 3 years old in Spain raises some doubts about the exogenous nature of this variable. This article provides new evidence about the impact of preschool years on educational outcomes by exploiting a peculiar Spanish database that supplies information on two classrooms at fourth grade in primary schools where students were randomly allocated into each group. Using an identification strategy that reproduces a natural experiment, we find that belonging to the group with more average years of preschool education significantly and positively impacts on fourthgrade students’ average outcomes. Particularly, an increase of one standard deviation in the difference in years of preschool attendance results in an increase of 0.16 (0.13) standard deviations in the group achievement for mathematics (reading). In view of the importance of preschool education and considering that preschool attendance before 3 years old is related with socio-economic variables, we conclude that extending free preschool education to the 2-year-old age group in Spain should be considered especially for students in families with less favourablebackgrounds.
PB Taylor & Francis
SN 0003-6846
YR 2018
FD 2018
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/19044
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/19044
LA eng
NO Fundación Ramón Areces
NO European Foundation Society and Education
DS Docta Complutense
RD 15 may 2024