Recently, Associate Professor Yiwei Qian from the Department of Applied Economics at our institute and his co-authors published a paper entitled Parental Investment, School Choice, and the Sustained Benefits of Early Childhood Intervention Programs in the Journal of Development Economics (JDE), a top international journal in development economics. Since its founding in 1974, JDE has been a leading journal in the field, publishing original research on all aspects of economic development, focusing from contemporary policy issues to long-run structural questions. The journal has an impact factor of 5.0.

This paper follows a randomized controlled trial of a six-month home-visiting program and examines its persistent effects on child development and parental investment behavior. The study found that two and a half years after the program's completion, before children entered primary school, the program had a lasting impact on parents' investment in the home parenting environment, particularly in preschool enrollment and investment. Children in the treatment group enrolled in school earlier and attended higher-quality preschools, reflecting a shift in parental preferences for preschool quality. In addition, the study shows sustained effects on children’s working memory. However, no clear evidence is found of impacts on other cognitive subdomains or noncognitive skills at school entry.