The Economics of Human Development and Social Mobility
Open accessAbstract
This article distills and extends recent research on the economics of human development and social mobility. It summarizes the evidence from diverse literatures on the importance of early life conditions in shaping multiple life skills and the evidence on critical and sensitive investment periods for shaping different skills. It presents economic models that rationalize the evidence and unify the treatment effect and family influence literatures. The evidence on the empirical and policy importance of credit constraints in forming skills is examined. There is little support for the claim that untargeted income transfer policies to poor families significantly boost child outcomes. Mentoring, parenting, and attachment are essential features of successful families and interventions that shape skills at all stages of childhood. The next wave of family studies will better capture the active role of the emerging autonomous child in learning and responding to the actions of parents, mentors, and teachers.
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Interventions targeted towards adolescent girls might have higher returns than later timed interventions.
“Hence interventions targeted towards adolescent girls might have higher returns than later timed interventions”
From Women's Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa (2020) · cites this paper as Heckman and Mosso 2014
In “Resilience and Targeted Investment” (page unavailable), the paper says later-life remediation generally has smaller economic returns than policies aimed at closing gaps earlier, and identifies promising adolescent interventions. It does not establish that this timing comparison applies specifically to adolescent girls. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe family fixed-effects design adjusts for a wide range of potential confounds at the family level, including early rearing environment, neighborhood effects, and genetic inheritance.
“Regardless of the name, the design is implemented with the goal of adjusting for a wide range of potential confounds at the family level, factors such as the early rearing environment, neighborhood effects, and even genetic inheritance (Becker & Tomes, 1986; Heckman & Mosso, 2014).”
From Does contact with the justice system deter or promote future delinquency? Results from a longitudinal study of British adolescent twins (2020) · cites this paper as Heckman & Mosso, 2014
Section 4.4 discusses statistical controls for parental education and maternal ability, and Section 4.3 identifies neighborhood as an influence on child development. Neither passage explains a family fixed-effects design or says it adjusts for early rearing environment, neighborhood effects, and genetic inheritance. Searches for fixed effects, sibling comparisons, and genetic inheritance found no passage making that methodological claim. (LLM, conf=0.72)
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References 227 · Cited by 940
Research works printed but not linked: 38
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- Authors
- Heckman, J. J., & Mosso, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- ORCID
- Heckman, James J.
- Venue
- Annual Review of Economics
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2014-08-02
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 689-733
- ISSN
- 1941-1383 (ISSN-L)
- 1941-1391
- PMC
- PMC4204337
- OpenAlex
- W2100746011
- Cited by
- 940
- References
- 227
- Citations by year
- 2026: 59 · 2025: 149 · 2024: 83 · 2023: 98 · 2022: 92 · 2021: 85 · 2020: 75 · 2019: 73 · 2018: 79 · 2017: 51 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 15.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Annual Review of Economics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- American Bar Foundation
- Institute for New Economic Thinking
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R37HD065072, R01HD054702)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Social Sciences › Demography › Culture, Economy, and Development Studies
- Keywords
- human development, social mobility, early life conditions, skill development, sensitive period, critical period, treatment effects, family influence, credit constraints, transfer payments, child outcomes, mentoring, parenting, attachment, child autonomy
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