LCHE seminar - The Effectiveness of Early Life Investments: Evidence from the Preparing for Life Trial

The Lausanne Center for Health Economics, Behavior, and Policy (LCHE) regularly organizes seminars about Health Economics. More details on www.lche.ch.

Topic of the day

The Effectiveness of Early Life Investments: Evidence from the Preparing for Life Trial

Using a randomized experiment, this study investigates the impact of sustained investment in parenting early in life on outcomes later in adolescence. 

The Preparing for Life program, one of the longest running field experiments in Europe, provided at-risk families with an intensive home visiting program from pregnancy until age five.

End-line results, and follow-up results at age 9, demonstrate that the program was effective in raising cognitive skills by between 0.55-0.7 SD. 

This paper will report on the results of the age 14 follow-up and will include measures of IQ, executive functioning, time and risk preferences, health behaviors, and anti-social behavior.

Speaker

• Prof. Orla Doyle

Orla Doyle is a Professor in the School of Economics and a Research Fellow at the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy. The core focus of her research is the economics of human behaviour. She has developed, led, and consolidated a large research programme dedicated to evaluating the effectiveness of early childhood intervention programmes using experimental designs. She is currently the Director of the UCD Childhood and Human Development Research Centre.

Practical information

• Free admission
• No need to register
• This seminar is given in English

About LCHE

The Lausanne Center for Health Economics, Behavior, and Policy (LCHE) at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) promotes research, teaching, and policy advice in the fields of health economics, behavior, and policy.

The interdisciplinary center brings together researchers of the Center for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisanté), the Faculty of Biology and Medicine (CHUV-FBM), and the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC).