We use experimental data from the Head Start Impact Study to examine the effect of sequential participation in childcare programs on cognitive outcomes. Using a sequential threshold model, which accounts for selection beyond initial randomization, we estimate causal returns to program sequences, including joint and cross returns across skill investment programs. We then estimate a dynamic structural model as a juxtaposition and evaluate a counterfactual policy reform which limits individuals to one year of Head Start. Our results support Head Start implementation earlier in life, and support engaging low-ability children with center-based care and high-ability children with some home care.

This paper studies the consequences of the buildup of a new economic sector—the Norwegian petroleum industry—on investment in human capital. We assess both short-term and long-term effects for a broad set of educational margins, by comparing individuals in regions exposed to the new sector with individuals in unexposed regions. Importantly, we analyze how the effects and the mechanisms change as the sector develops. Our results indicate that an initial increase in the high school dropout rate is short-lived both because dropouts get their degrees later as adults, and because later-born cohorts adapt to the new needs of the industry by enrolling more in vocational secondary education. We also observe a decrease in academic high school and college enrollment except for engineering degrees. Financial incentives to both completing high school and field of study, are the most likely channels driving these effects.

We study the effects of changing the rule that defines how students are selected into high schools in a context where school capacity is fixed. Schools for which demand exceeds supply must necessarily exclude some students from enrollment. We provide a theoretical framework to analyze the overall effect of policy changes, taking into account the crowding-out effect. Exploiting a reform that implemented merit-based allocation in Norway, we show that we can identify the relevant parameters. The reform had an overall negative effect because of the negative impact on crowded-out students. Different allocation rules would result in higher average outcomes.

Do large economic shocks increase intergenerational earnings mobility through creating new economic opportunities? Alternatively, do they reduce mobility by reinforcing the links between generations? In this paper, we estimate how the Norwegian oil boom starting in the 1970s affected intergenerational mobility. We find that this resource shock increased intergenerational mobility for cohorts entering the labor market at the beginning of the oil boom in those labor markets most affected by the growing oil industry. In particular, we show that individuals born to poor families in oil-affected regions were more likely to move to the top of their cohort's earnings distribution. Importantly, we reveal that preexisting local differences in intergenerational mobility did not drive these findings. Instead, we show that changes in the returns to education offer the best explanation for geographic differences in intergenerational mobility following the oil boom. In addition, we find that intergenerational mobility was significantly higher in oil-affected labor markets across three generations and that the oil boom broke the earnings link between grandfathers and their grandsons.

In this paper we estimate the causal effect of a training program for disadvantaged youths on their long-run labor market outcomes. Individuals receive lottery offers to participate in the program, but are allowed to choose when to leave the program and to participate alternative programs. We consider a multi-stage decision setting, where individuals sequentially select which program to participate at every stage. The standard IV estimator using initial random assignment as instrumental variable identifies a weighted average of the effects of the treatment for subgroups of individuals differing in terms of potential duration of participation and choice of the alternative programs. We estimate a sequential choice model which allows us to separately estimate the effect of the treatment for these different subgroups. We use the estimated model to investigate the dynamic complementarity between different training programs and explore program targeting to improve the cost-effectiveness relative to the existing program.

We examine the effects of school closures on parental labor participation. We investigate how mothers and fathers respond differently to these closures and find that mothers are more inclined to take time off from work. However, in a country with a rigid labor market like Italy, this primarily manifests as an increase in both paid and unpaid leave (intensive margin) rather than a decrease in employment (extensive margin). We thus assess the consequences of a policy reform aimed at reducing the costs associated with taking leave, considering both short-term and long-term maternal outcomes. Additionally, we perform a welfare analysis to determine the overall benefits of implementing such a policy.

Informal networks are an important job search channel. While a growing literature focuses on referred workers within the firm, little is known about the long-term worker-level benefits from job searches conducted with the help of social ties. In this paper, I use Norwegian registry data and focus on displaced workers. I follow these workers with respect to the jobs they find after displacement and show that those who are newly employed where a member of their network is also employed, on average earned higher salaries before displacement, suggesting positive selection. In the years immediately following displacement, the earnings gap favoring workers employed with a member of their network increases, partly due to shorter unemployment spells. However, this gap vanishes completely seven years after displacement. I discuss possible explanations for the decrease in the earnings gap and I describe how this new empirical evidence relates to different theoretical models developed to explain the usage of networks in job search.