Analyzing the Economic Impact
In this new essay, journalist Richard Louv describes accumulating scientific evidence that supports a new, more productive strategy for job creation and long-term economic health. Quoting Council Contributing Members, including Nobel Prize-winning economist James J. Heckman and Art Rolnick, senior vice president and director of research and public affairs at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the article argues that the origin of a nation’s productive strength – its cradle of prosperity– is best measured neurologically as well as in traditional economic terms.
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Focusing on child development could become a new and positive approach for long-term economic growth, says Arthur J. Rolnick, Ph.D., senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Two independent lines of research – brain studies and longitudinal economic analyses – lead us to conclude that the early years (of childhood) are critical to the society’s economic development," Dr. Rolnick says. High quality, early childhood programs help society avoid the enormous costs associated with fixing – or not fixing – later social and economic problems. This approach offers "an extraordinary rate of return when compared with other public investments."
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Council Member Greg Duncan, Professor, Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education and Social Policy and Faculty Associate in the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, discusses studies indicating that investments in social programs that raise a poor working mother’s income may be especially beneficial to her children when they are of preschool age. Other studies show that high-quality preschool education interventions can have long-term beneficial impacts on school dropout, lifetime earnings and incarceration rates for teenagers and young adults. Early interventions thus have the potential to produce substantial economic gains for society.
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