Category Archives: Distribution of benefits

Making the case for pre-K: some fiscal and economic arithmetic

Posted on April 6, 2012 by timbartik

Andrew Rotherham has an April 5th Time magazine column with the ominous title, “Are Pre-K Programs About To Get Gutted?” Mr. Rotherham apparently has access to an advance copy of the forthcoming annual report on state preschool programs from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs, Economic development, National vs. state vs. local, Timing of benefits | Comments Off on Making the case for pre-K: some fiscal and economic arithmetic

Preschool is a cost-effective way of improving school readiness that can be implemented on a large scale

Posted on March 20, 2012 by timbartik

Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution has a just-released paper (March 19, 2012) that provides valuable comparisons of preschool versus other methods of increasing school readiness, at kindergarten entrance, for children from low-income families. The backdrop to this paper is … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs | Comments Off on Preschool is a cost-effective way of improving school readiness that can be implemented on a large scale

Who benefits from higher skills?

Posted on March 2, 2012 by timbartik

Catherine Rampell of the New York Times has a good article this morning on state budget cuts to higher education. The article raises broader issues about how policymakers and the public should think about the benefits of investments in education … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs | Comments Off on Who benefits from higher skills?

Class matters: New York Times op-ed

Posted on December 12, 2011 by timbartik

This morning’s New York Times has a strong op-ed by Helen Ladd and Ed Fiske. Helen Ladd is a well-known public finance economist at Duke. Ed Fiske is the former education editor of the Times, but is perhaps best known … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs | 1 Comment

How socially valuable is additional employment?

Posted on December 5, 2011 by timbartik

I have a new working paper available that looks at how job-creating policies should be evaluated in benefit-cost analyses. The paper is technical, and is mainly addressed to economists interested in benefit-cost analysis. However, the paper’s findings have some important … Continue reading →

Posted in Business incentives, Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs, Economic development, Local variation in benefits | Comments Off on How socially valuable is additional employment?

Top 9 reasons why universal access to pre-K makes sense

Posted on November 22, 2011 by timbartik

I was recently asked to give some key reasons why pre-K systems with broad or even universal access make sense. Here are my top 9 reasons. Political sustainability. Systems that help income groups that comprise a majority of voters are … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood program design issues, Early childhood programs, Economic development | 1 Comment

How much can early childhood education do to reduce income inequality?

Posted on October 20, 2011 by timbartik

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote in a recent column  that the Occupy Wall Street movement “is shining a useful spotlight on one of America’s central challenges, the inequality that leaves the richest 1 percent of Americans with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs | Comments Off on How much can early childhood education do to reduce income inequality?

Why the goal of local economic development should be higher earnings per capita, not job growth, and why it matters

Posted on September 22, 2011 by timbartik

Developing good local economic development policies depends in part on having the right goals. Many economic developers and policymakers see economic development as being about increasing local job growth. But increasing local job growth is not a sound goal for … Continue reading →

Posted in Business incentives, Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs, Economic development, Incentive design issues, National vs. state vs. local | Comments Off on Why the goal of local economic development should be higher earnings per capita, not job growth, and why it matters

Why earnings benefits of pre-K can be so large for the middle-class

Posted on August 22, 2011 by timbartik

My recent working paper on Tulsa’s pre-K program predicts that pre-K will increase the future earnings of both the poor and the middle class by similar dollar amounts.  (This paper, co-authored with Bill Gormley and Shirley Adelstein of Georgetown, can … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs | Comments Off on Why earnings benefits of pre-K can be so large for the middle-class

Inequality, early childhood programs, economic productivity, and the middle class

Posted on May 16, 2011 by timbartik

I just finished reading Robert Reich’s latest book, After-Shock: The Next Economy and America’s Future. Reich argues that increased inequality in the United States has had high costs. These include costs for macroeconomic stability and costs for the democratic representativeness … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs | Comments Off on Inequality, early childhood programs, economic productivity, and the middle class