The long-run effects of a Building Block’s Program

Recent literature on human capital formation emphasizes the dynamic skills-building process throughout the life cycle. According to Cunha and Heckman (2010), deficiencies in building specific skills early in life make it difficult to catch up later. In 2014, using a randomized control trial, the researchers evaluated the impacts of a Building Block Program implemented in Recife. The short-run effects of the Program indicate a positive impact on cognitive skills and test scores of the third graders, positive results in socio-emotional skills for both grades and complementarities between socio-emotional skills and the development of cognitive skills. Two and half years later, there is evidence that the intervention positively impacted math proficiency (Pinto and Ponczek, 2023). However, it is well documented by the literature that the initial beneficial impacts of some programs may fade out over time (e.g. Bailey at al (2017), Cilliers et al (2022) Protzko (2015), Wolf et al (2019)). Therefore, the goal of this study is to reassess the impacts of the program ten years after its implementation. Specifically, the researchers want to investigate if it has persistent effects on academic achievement and labor market outcomes. They take advantage of the RCT carried out in 2014, when fifteen schools were randomly assigned to treatment and fifteen to the control group. More than three thousand third and fifth graders were enrolled at these schools. To estimate the long-run effects, they will combine data collected in 2014 with identified administrative data.