National Child Health Study - United States

People working on child health and related topics, who haven't already looked at this, will be interested in the development of the National Child Health Study in the US, which will be recruiting 100,000 children from before birth and tracking them until the age of 21.

Heckman on Early Education and Later Health

if you invest in roads it is considered capital but we consider education current spending. While our roads need development, it is worth opening the public debate about treating large scale education programmes as investments. Nancy Folbre talks about this in the excellent Economix blog. She references and links to another mammoth presentation by Heckman.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/the-ultimate-growth-industry/


http://www.partnershipforsuccess.org/uploads/20081021_capabilformchiDISP20080921ajlt11.pdf

Geary Institute Symposium

Dear Colleague,

Janet Currie is a Professor of Economics at Columbia University. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an affiliate of the University of Michigan's Poverty Center and has served on several National Academy panels. She has held positions at MIT, Princeton and UCLA. Her recent work, amongst many other interests, evaluates the extent to which programmes for poor children and families can be viewed as successful social investments. She has also extensive interests in the intergenerational relationships between parents and children in outcomes such as health and education.

The Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO) is a leading research centre at the University of Bristol. CMPO studies the intersection between the public and private sectors of the economy, to understand the right way to organise and deliver public services. The Centre aims to develop research, contribute to the public debate and inform policy-making.

To mark the visit to Dublin by Janet Currie, researchers at the CMPO and the UCD Geary Institute have joined forces to organise a workshop being held in UCD Geary Institute 24th February 09 entitled "Health, Education and Social Outcomes for Children".

The full day workshop will be held in the Geary Institute seminar room B003/4. Please find the programme below for info.

It would be much appreciated if all RSVP's were sent back before 15th February as to allow time to make appropriate arrangements for the attendance. Please indicate if you are just attending for Janet's talk, or the whole event where possible.

Please send RSVP's to Emma Barron (emma.barron@ucd.ie / Ph: 01 - 7164631)

Kind regards

Colm

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24th Feb

1115 Early conditions and Health - Evidence from Irish History
Liam Delaney (UCD)

1145 Understanding the Relationship Between Parental Income and Multiple Child Outcomes: A Decomposition Analysis
Elizabeth Washbrook (Bristol)

1215 The Early Childhood Determinants of Time Preferences
Orla Doyle (UCD)

1245 Break to allow lunch to be set up etc

1300 Working Lunch & Keynote:

Child Health and Young Adult Outcomes
Janet Currie (Columbia)

1430 Cross-Generational Predictors at 5 Year Follow-Up in Lifeways Cohort Study of 1000 Irish Families: Preliminary Findings
Cecily Kelleher (UCD)

1500 Child weight and academic outcomes
Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder (Bristol)

1530 Examining the Impact of Early Childhood Services on Social and Biological Outcomes: Proposed Plan for International Comparison
Sylvana Cote (Montreal/UCD)

1600 Break

1615 Beyond Test Scores: the Role of Primary Schools in Improving Multiple Child Outcomes
Claire Crawford (Institute of Education, London)

1645 Child Support and Educational Outcomes
Ian Walker (Lancaster/UCD)

1715 DISCUSSION

1800 CLOSE

The Returns to Positive Social Development in Childhood

Mary Silles from NUI Galway produced a working paper at Copenhagen's Center for Applied Microeconometrics in 2005, entitled "Personality, Education and Earnings". The paper uses the UK National Child Development Study to examine the effects of social maladjustment in childhood on schooling and earnings. "Net of differences in family background and cognitive ability, estimates suggest that early social maladjustment scores are associated with lower labor market earnings and schooling. These results suggest that there are substantial returns to fostering positive social development in childhood."

Heckman on Irish Education Policy

James Heckman speaking on Irish radio on Irish education and theories of child development

here