Early childhood human capital formation at scale
研究将低成本家访干预整合进孟加拉国国家营养计划的效果，发现对儿童认知、语言和社会情感有正面影响，并降低了营养不良率，内部回报率达18.9%。
Can governments leverage existing service-delivery platforms to scale early childhood development (ECD) interventions? We experimentally study a large-scale, low-cost home-visiting intervention – providing materials and counseling – integrated into Bangladesh’s national nutrition program without extra financial incentives for service providers (SPs). We find SPs partially substitute away from nutritional to ECD counseling. Intent-to-treat estimates show positive impacts on child’s cognition (0.17 SD), language (0.23 SD), and socio-emotional scores (0.12-0.14 SD). Wasting and underweight rates decline. Older siblings’ primary school attendance increases as well. Improved maternal agency, complementary parental investments, and higher take-up of the pre-existing nutrition program are important mechanisms. We estimate a sizeable internal rate-of-return of 18.9%.