Proponents of early childhood education and care programs cite evidence that high-quality center-based childcare has positive impacts on child development, particularly for disadvantaged children. However, much of this evidence stems from randomized evaluations of small-scale intensive programs based in the United States and other Anglo/English-speaking countries. Evidence is more mixed with respect to widespread or universal center-based childcare provision. In addition, most evidence is based on childcare experiences of 3- to 5-year-old children; less is known about the impact of center-based care in earlier childhood. The French context is particularly suited to such interrogation because the majority of French children who attend center-based care do so in high-quality, state-funded, state-regulated centers, known as crèches, and before age 3. We use data from a large, nationally representative French birth cohort, the Étude Longitudinale Français depuis l'Enfance (Elfe), and an instrumental variables strategy that leverages exogenous variation in both birth quarter and local crèche supply to estimate whether crèche attendance at age 1 has an impact on language, motor skills, and child behavior at age 2. Results indicate that crèche attendance has a positive impact on language skills, no impact on motor skills, and a negative impact on behavior. Moreover, the positive impact on language skills is particularly concentrated among disadvantaged children. This implies that facilitating increased crèche access among disadvantaged families may hold potential for decreasing early socioeconomic disparities in language development and, given the importance of early development for later-life outcomes, thereby have an impact on long-term population inequalities.

中文翻译：

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基于中心的儿童保育出勤对早期儿童发展的影响：来自法国 Elfe 队列的证据。

早期儿童教育和保育计划的支持者引用证据表明，高质量的以中心为基础的儿童保育对儿童发展具有积极影响，尤其是对弱势儿童而言。然而，这些证据大部分来自对美国和其他英语/英语国家的小规模强化课程的随机评估。关于广泛或普遍的以中心为基础的儿童保育服务的证据更加复杂。此外，大多数证据是基于 3 至 5 岁儿童的育儿经历；对儿童早期中心护理的影响知之甚少。法国的情况特别适合这种审讯，因为大多数接受中心护理的法国儿童都是在 3 岁之前在高质量、国家资助、国家监管的中心（称为托儿所）进行的。我们使用来自一个具有全国代表性的大型法国出生队列的数据，即 Étude Longitudinale Français depuis l'Enfance (Elfe)，以及利用出生季度和当地托儿所供应的外生变化的工具变量策略来估计 1 岁时托儿所的出勤率对语言、运动技能和儿童 2 岁时的行为有影响。结果表明，托儿所出勤对语言技能有积极影响，对运动技能没有影响，对行为有负面影响。此外，对语言技能的积极影响尤其集中在弱势儿童身上。这意味着促进弱势家庭增加托儿所的机会可能具有减少语言发展中早期社会经济差异的潜力，并且，