Collaborative Research: Household Decision-Making and Child Development

本研究的目标是扩大对儿童认知发展的理解，使用一个建模框架，允许将直接措施的投资活动的父母，儿童和学校在生产的儿童的认知能力，从出生到青春期。第一个项目研究在儿童认知能力发展阶段从父母到儿童的投资过渡。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;儿童对未来的定位提高（反映在随年龄增长的特定年龄折扣系数上）;以及儿童在家庭决策中的作用（外源和内源）变化。PI将制定和评估父母和孩子之间的互动的非合作和合作模式。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，当儿童开始正规教育时，与儿童在一起的时间急剧减少（特别是母亲）。在建模框架内，学校教育被视为一个新的“生产要素”，进入儿童生产函数时，孩子第一次进入正规学校教育。联合建模学校和家长的投入是一个重要的贡献，在很大程度上认为每一个孤立的文学。CDS-PSID不仅包含关于抽样答卷人地理位置的信息，而且还包含关于每个儿童就读学校质量的具体信息。了解认知发展过程以及各行为体在其中发挥的作用，对于制定有效政策以取得更好的发展成果至关重要。PI将使用这些模型的估计值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，例如育儿假的有效性或有效的无条件和有条件现金转移支付（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.