| This dissertation is an economic analysis of topics in education: universal prekindergarten and the effect of cohort and class size on grade retention.;The first chapter analyzes the household response to universal prekindergarten. Knowing how household demand for childcare is affected by free provision of preschool is a first step to understanding the potential impacts of universal prekindergarten on the outcomes of students enrolled in these programs. Difference-in-difference estimates, using data from the Current Population Survey, show that statewide enrollment of four-year-olds in school increases by 13 to 17 percent with universal pre-K. Specifically, public preschool enrollment rises by 13 to 14 percentage points (50 percent) on average, and private preschool enrollment falls by almost half this amount. In particular, universal prekindergarten increases school enrollment among poorer households, and causes richer households to substitute public pre-K for private preschool programs.;The second and third chapters are connected, as they both attempt to determine if "smaller is better" at reducing grade retention. Specifically, Chapter 2 considers whether grade retention is more pronounced in larger cohorts. National data shows that a 10 percent increase in kindergarten enrollment yields a 0.5 percentage point increase in cohort shrinkage across early grade transitions, which implies that larger cohorts feature higher rates of retention. Consistent with previous work on class and school size in more restricted settings, this cohort-tracking exercise provides robust evidence at the national level that smallness confers benefits.;Chapter 3 estimates the causal relationship between class size and recommended retention in the early elementary grades. Analysis of Tennessee's Project STAR class size experiment shows that first graders randomly assigned to smaller classes are two percentage points less likely to be recommended for retention than students assigned to large classes. Estimates also suggest that the class size effect is largest for males and low-income students. |
