@techreport{NBERw4406, title = "Does Head Start Make a
Difference?", author = "Janet Currie and Duncan Thomas",
institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research", type =
"Working Paper", series = "Working Paper Series", number =
"4406", year = "1993", month = "July", doi = {10.3386/w4406},
URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w4406", abstract = {Although
there is a broad hi-partisan support for Head Start, the
evidence of positive longterm effects of the program is not
overwhelming. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey's
Child-Mother file, we examine the impact of the program on a
range of child outcomes. We compare non-parametric estimates of
program effects with estimates from parametric models that
control for selection by including mother fixed effects. This
comparison suggests that studies that ignore selection can be
substantially misleading; it also suggests that the impact of
selection differs considerably across racial and ethnic groups.
After controlling for selection, we find positive a