Collaborative Research: Household Decision-Making and Child Development

本研究的目标是利用一个模型框架来扩大对儿童认知发展的理解，该模型框架允许将父母、儿童和学校在儿童从出生到青春期的认知能力生产中的投资活动的直接测量纳入其中。第一个项目研究儿童认知能力的投资在发展阶段从父母到孩子的转变。推动这一转变的因素包括：随着儿童年龄的增长，自我投资的生产率提高；儿童未来取向的增加（反映在年龄增加的特定年龄折扣因素中）；以及（外生的和内生的）孩子在家庭决策中角色的变化。pi将制定和评估父母与孩子之间的非合作和合作互动模式。第二个项目调查正规学校教育在认知发展过程中的作用。正如收入动态小组研究的儿童发展补充数据所观察到的那样，当孩子开始接受正规教育时，与孩子在一起的时间急剧减少（尤其是对母亲来说）。在建模框架内，学校教育被视为一种新的“生产要素”，当孩子第一次进入正规学校教育时，它就进入了儿童生产功能。联合建模学校和家长的投入是一个重要的贡献，很大程度上考虑每一个孤立的文献。CDS-PSID不仅包含样本受访者的地理位置信息，还包含每个孩子就读的学校质量的具体信息。了解认知发展过程和各种行动者在其中发挥的作用，对于制定有效的政策以实现更好的发展成果至关重要。pi将使用这些模型的估计来进行比较静态练习和反事实政策实验，这些实验有可能为政策提供信息，例如育儿假的功效或有效的无条件和有条件现金转移（CCT）计划的设计。

The goal of this research is to broaden understanding of the cognitive development of children using a modeling framework that allows to incorporate direct measures of investment activity by parents, children, and schools in the production of the child's cognitive ability from birth through adolescence. The first project studies the transition of investment in child cognitive ability from the parents to the child over the development phase. The factors driving the transition include: the increased productivity of self-investment as the child ages; increases in the child's future orientation (reflected in age-specific discount factors that are increasing in age); and (exogenous and endogenous) changes in the child's role in household decision-making. The PIs will formulate and estimate both non-cooperative and cooperative models of interactions between parents and children. The second project investigates the role of formal schooling in the cognitive development process. As observed in the Child Development Supplement data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, time spent with children declines dramatically (particularly for mothers) when children begin formal schooling. Within the modeling framework, schooling is viewed as a new "factor of production" that enters the child production function when the child first enters formal schooling. Jointly modeling both school and parental inputs is an important contribution to a literature which largely considers each in isolation. The CDS-PSID contains information not only on the geographic location of sample respondents, but also specific information on the quality of the school that each child attends. Understanding the cognitive development process and the role that various actors play in it is essential for the formulation of effective policies to achieve better developmental outcomes. The PIs will use estimates from these models to perform comparative statics exercises and counterfactual policy experiments that have the potential to inform policy, such as the efficacy of parental leaves or the design of effective unconditional and conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs.