Early Childhood Environment and Adult Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from U.S. Administrative Data

该项目研究儿童早期经济环境对成人经济福利的长期因果影响。它考察了出生在美国经济困难地区的孩子成年后是否一直比其他地区的孩子表现更差，以及童年时获得社会保障是否会改善或加剧这些不利因素。在此过程中，本项目希望揭示公共项目（包括妇女、婴儿和儿童特别补充营养计划（WIC）、领先计划和食品券）在保护个人免受幼儿期经济劣势的长期后果方面发挥社会安全网作用的程度。为了回答这些问题，本项目使用了美国大部分劳动力的最新行政数据，这些数据将个人的出生日期和地点信息，以及他们30多岁和40多岁时的年收入和就业信息结合在一起。本研究试图揭示在美国经济困难地区长大的一些长期后果。这些结果可能对最近受大衰退影响的儿童群体具有重要意义，并有助于理解美国不平等的持续存在以及经济福祉的代际传递。这个项目可能有助于提高对美国一些最大的社会安全网项目的效益和相对效率的理解，这些项目针对的是大量的弱势群体。该项目的成果将通过政策制定者、公众和学术界之间的论坛进行传播。这项研究产生的数据和程序将供其他研究人员使用，从而进一步研究美国早期生活劣势的长期后果

This project studies the long-term causal effects of early childhood economic circumstances on adult economic well-being. It examines whether children born into economically distressed areas of the U.S. have persistently worse outcomes in adulthood relative to others, and whether access to the safety net as a child ameliorates or exacerbates some of these disadvantages. In doing so, this project hopes to shed light on the degree to which public programs (including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Head Start, and Food Stamps) play the role of a social safety net in terms of protecting individuals against the long-term consequences of economic disadvantages in early childhood. To answer these questions, this project uses newly available administrative data on a large fraction of the United States workforce that combines information on individuals' dates and places of birth together with information on their annual earnings and employment observed well into their 30s and 40s.This research attempts to uncover some of the long-run consequences of growing up in an economically distressed location in the U.S. These results may have important implications for the recent cohorts of children affected by the Great Recession and contribute to the understanding of the persistence in inequality as well as intergenerational transmission of economic well-being in the U.S. Moreover, this project may help improve the understanding of the benefits and relative efficacy of some of the largest social safety net programs in the United States, which target a large and vulnerable population. The results from this project will be disseminated through forums linking policymakers, the public, and the academic community. The data and programs generated from this research will be available to other researchers, enabling further research on the long-run consequences of early-life disadvantages in the U.S.