The Lifecycle Benefits of an Influential Early Childhood Program

This paper estimates the large array of long-run benefits of an influential early childhood program that worked with children from infancy to age 5, targeted to disadvantaged children and their families. The researchers studied the effects of the 1970s-era Carolina Abecedarian Project (ABC) and a largely similar project called Carolina Approach to Responsive Education, jointly referred to as ABC/CARE. The cost of the ABC/CARE interventions were substantial — an estimated $18,500 per child per year in 2014 dollars. But the rate of return for ABC/CARE was about 13 percent when researchers looked at the participants’ improved health, IQ, education, and decreases in their involvement in crime, as well as the increased labor participation of the mothers whose children were a part of the program.