Does Early Schooling Equalize Educational Outcomes Across Social Origins : Evidence from Pre-School Extension in France

Universal preschool is often seen as the mean par excellence of correcting social inequality in educational achievement. However, evidence on the short and long-term effect of preschool is very limited. Over the 1960s and 1970s, France undertook a large-scale expansion of preschool enrollment. As a result, during this period, the enrollment rate of 3 years old children rose from 35% to 90% and that of 4 years old rose from 60% to virtually 100%. This paper evaluates the effect of this expansion on subsequent schooling outcomes (repetitions, test scores, high school graduation) and wages. We examine the average benefit of preschool enrollment and differences across social groups in the benefits of preschool. We find some sizeable and persistent effect of preschool and this points to the fact that preschool can be a tool for reducing inequalities. Indeed, the analysis shows that children from worse-off or intermediate social groups benefit more from preschool than children from better-off socioeconomic backgrounds.

full draft paper can be found at : https://sites.google.com/site/lefrancarnaud/Home/research/diapers_2.pdf?attredirects=0