Long-Term Effects of Preschooling on Educational Attainments

Whether universal preschool education can eliminate the achievement gap among children in the long term has been debated in the United States and elsewhere. This paper offers new evidence from the experience of massive preschool education expansion in Japan. Using prefecture-level panel data, we estimate the effects of preschooling expansion on two measures of long-term educational achievement: high school and college advancement rates. We find that the expansion of both kindergarten and nursery schools have a significant positive impact on high school and college advancement rates, and the effect of attendance in nursery school is stronger than that in kindergarten.