Decades of research on behavioral economics have established the importance of factors that are typically absent from the standard economic framework: reference dependent preferences, hyperbolic preferences, and the value placed on non-financial rewards. To date, these insights have had little...

We estimate the direct and spillover effects of a large-scale early childhood intervention on the educational attainment of over 2,000 disadvantaged children in the United States. We show that failing to account for spillover effects results in a severe underestimation of the impact. The...

Parental investments at early ages can shape children’s future educational specializations. Using a longitudinal study, we find that parents invest more in daughters than sons at ages 3-5. Moreover, parents’ beliefs about their children’s reading and math abilities are higher for girls...