Grace Ford is a Predoctoral Fellow at CEHD. In her time at CEHD, she has worked on the Center’s first in-house field experiment, which aims to measure preferences, personality traits, and noncognitive skills to see how these traits are related and how predictive they are of success in school, among other projects. As an undergraduate, her research primarily focused on education and development economics, and her thesis examined the effects of rural electrification on household poverty escape rates in India.

In a new Voxeu column, CEHD Director James Heckman, Postdoctoral Fellow Jin Zhou, Dr. Bei Liu, and CDRF Vice Chairman Mai Lu highlight findings from their recent paper, “Treatment Effects and the Measurement of Skills in a Prototypical Home Visiting Program.” The authors note that home visiting programs have been shown to be effective and relatively low cost compared to other early childhood interventions. The column evaluates the impact of the China REACH program, which is based on Jamaica Reach Up and Learn. “Growth profiles reveal that China REACH is on track to reach or exceed the growth profiles of the highly successful Jamaica Reach Up program,” the authors write. Read the full column here.

Rafeh Qureshi, a student in the Economics MAPSS program at the University of Chicago, is a Predoctoral Fellow at CEHD. During his tenure at CEHD, he has worked mainly on a project examining social mobility in Denmark. His background primarily involves labor economics, with an emphasis on post-secondary education.

Center Director James Heckman will give online lectures at two virtual events this week.

Kurtis Gilliat is a Predoctoral Fellow at CEHD through July 2020. During his tenure at CEHD, he has worked mainly on analyzing data from the Perry Preschool Program. He also attended HCEO’s first Summer School on Socioeconomic Inequality in Chengdu, China, organized in partnership with Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Gilliat will be starting the Ph.D. program in Economics at the University of California, San Diego this fall.

CEHD Director James J. Heckman will be presenting on Promoting Skills to Promoting Social Mobility at the Peking University and the University of Chicago Joint lecture series on June 11, 9PM CT/June 12 10AM China. Economic growth has been rapid in the past 40 years in China. Poverty has declined at historically unprecedented rates. However, inequality has increased. Not all parts of China have prospered at the same rate. This lecture discusses what skills are important for the modern economy. It considers how to boost skills to reduce inequality and promote social mobility. The benefits of home visiting programs targeted toward the early years are considered and recent findings from the China REACH program are considered. This lecture will feature CEHD Director James J. Heckman from the University of Chicago in conversation with Professor Ha Wei from Peking University. To register, click here, or see the attached flyer.