Applied Economics

Lecture 1 -- Week 1

Philipp Ager
University of Mannheim & CEPR
 Economic Demography

Demographic Transition
• Countries in Western Europe and North America
experienced the demographic transition during the 19th
and early 20th centuries

• What factors contributed to falling mortality and

fertility rates?

• Why is this interesting for economists?

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 Economic Demography
Demographic Transition
• Why is this interesting for economists?

• Unified growth theory (Galor, 2005) suggests that the

demographic transition played an important role in the
emergence of modern growth.

• In many countries: very detailed births, marriages and

death record available – often go back far in time
• https://www.familysearch.org/en/
• https://www.umu.se/en/centre-for-demographic-and-ageing-
research/search-tools/ships/
• https://usa.ipums.org/usa/

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 FROEBEL’S GIFTS:
HOW THE KINDERGARTEN MOVEMENT CHANGED THE
AMERICAN FAMILY

joint work with F. Cinnirella (U Bergamo)

Introduction
• Little is known about the economic effects of historical institutions of
child care
• What happened to American families when kindergartens were first
established?
• We evaluate the effect of the roll-out of kindergartens in U.S. cities
between 1880-1910 on mothers and their children:
• Household fertility (contribution to the demographic transition)

• Children exposed to kindergartens work less, have better language skills, and are
more likely to attend school at age 10-15

• Spillover effects (integration)

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Historical Background
• Friedrich Froebel: U.S. provides the environment for successfully
developing a kindergarten system
• First kindergarten established in the U.S. in 1855 (Watertown, WI) by a Froebel student
• Elizabeth Peabody opened the first English speaking kindergarten in Boston 1860
• Susan E. Blow operated the first public kindergarten in St. Louis (1873)

• St. Louis: role model for public kindergartens in other U.S. cities
• Public educators: regarded kindergartens as a tool to “safe” slum children
and train them the virtues of citizenship
• Mission: “the public school kindergarten provides for the children the best kind of nurturing and
scientific care, gives them the best kind of physical, mental, social, and spiritual training”
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Kindergarten Enrollment and Funding
• More than 7,000 kindergartens opened their doors between 1880-1910
• Enrollment rates in 1880 close to zero, but nationwide increase up to 9%
by 1912 (around 350,000 enrolled children)
• Most kindergartens operated in cities -- average enrollment rates of 5 to 6-
year-old children in cities ≈ 60% in 1910
• In 1912, 87% were public kindergartens, 85% of the enrolled children
attended public kindergartens
• Beyond attendance (2-3 hours per day), teachers met regularly with
mothers and visited children at home

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Data Collection
• Case study: public school reports from St. Louis (1873-1886)

• City level analysis: statistical reports commissioned by the Bureau of

Education (1874, 1880, 1886/87, 1890/91, 1895/96 to 1909/10 and 1912)

• Information on name, location (municipality), county, state, year of

establishment, number of pupils and teachers, and kindergarten type

• Match city-level data on kindergartens with complete-count data from

IPUMS for the years 1880-1910

• City sample: circa 8.5 million white women age 18-44 + circa 38,000 white
women for the St. Louis case study
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St. Louis -- A quasi-natural experiment

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Public Kindergarten Movement in St. Louis
• William T. Harris (Superintendent of Schools in St. Louis 1868-80): earlier
entry age in public education system to increase years of schooling,
especially of poor/immigrant children

• First kindergarten opened in the Des Peres School in September 1873 with
the aim of testing the practical effects of Froebel's system

• Most school districts had a kindergarten by the early 1880s (in total 27
kindergartens with morning and afternoon sessions)

• In 1880 about 40% of children of age 5-6 went to kindergarten before

being enrolled in first grade
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Data Collection
St. Louis Kindergarten Experiment
• Ingredients:
• St. Louis annual report Board of
Education (1873-1886)

• IPUMS complete count Census records (in

1880: households are geo-referenced)

• Historical maps (streets, shapefile of

enumeration districts)

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Identifying
Locations (1)

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Identifying
Locations (2)

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Identifying
Locations (3)

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Identifying
Locations (4)

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Locations of
Public Kindergartens and
Households in St. Louis 1880

• Sources:
• https://s4.ad.brown.edu/Projects/UTP2/nci
ties.htm
• https://usa.ipums.org/usa-
action/variables/UTP#description_section

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Event Study
• Sample of white women aged
18-44 listed as spouse or
household head
• Circa 38,000 women in 1880 in
St. Louis
• How is it possible to create an
event study in this context?
• https://usa.ipums.org/usa-
action/variables/RELATE#desc
ription_section
• https://usa.ipums.org/usa-
action/variables/MOMLOC#de
scription_section

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Event Study – Based on Enumeration Districts
𝜏𝜏+𝑗𝑗
• 𝑌𝑌𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 + 𝑦𝑦𝑦𝑦𝑦𝑦𝑦𝑦 𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 + ∑𝑗𝑗∈𝑇𝑇 𝛽𝛽𝑗𝑗 𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 + 𝛤𝛤𝑋𝑋𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 + 𝜖𝜖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖

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Event Study

Robustness Check:
- Distance to closest kindergarten

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Event Study – Based on Proximity

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Event Study – Kindergarten Attendance

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The Kindergarten Movement in U.S. Cities
• Combine measures of kindergarten exposure with complete-count samples
across U.S. Cities for the period 1880-1910
• Mothers:
a) Fertility decline but kindergarten exposure matters only if the household had a
child of kindergarten age at time of family planing
b) Strongest impact for foreign-born mothers + postive language spillover-effects

• Children
a) At age 10-15 exposed children are less likely to work and more likely to attend
school. Strongest effect on immigrant children, also in terms of English fluency
b) Lived in smaller families and had fewer children as adults
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 Conclusion
• The roll-out of kindergartens across U.S. cities caused a substantial reduction
in marital fertility, especially for mothers of poor and immigrant households

• Our results are broadly consistent with a Q-Q trade-off mechanism

• In terms of children outcomes, exposure to kindergarten is associated with a

higher (lower) likelihood of attending school (to work) at ages 10-15.

• General evidence that kindergarten facilitated social integration

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