TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Blimpo, Moussa
AU  - Carneiro, Pedro
AU  - Ortiz, Pamela Jervis
AU  - Lahire, Nathalie
AU  - Pugatch, Todd
        TI  - Improving Parental Investments in Children: Experimental Evidence from The Gambia
        PY  - 2024/Jul/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17133
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp17133
        AB  - We study two early childhood programs in The Gambia for children between 0 and 3 years of age. The basic version of the program, called Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI), provides parents with child health and nutrition information delivered through home visits and community meetings. A second version, called BFCI+, is center-based and adds cognitive stimulation to the basic version of the program through activities with children. Villages were randomly assigned to one of two versions of the program or to a control group that received neither. The BFCI+ program had moderate impacts on parental investments in children in terms of resources and time. Child language development improved for well-off parents or parents in the more well-off region. Poorer parents invested more in time spent with the children, whereas those who were more materially well-off spent more financial resources on the children. The basic version of the program, the BFCI, had no detectable impacts.
        KW  - early childhood development
KW  - cognitive stimulation
KW  - teacher training
KW  - The Gambia
KW  - randomized controlled trials
KW  - Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool
        ER  -