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Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp08100.pdf Nontechnical SummaryDeep-seated capabilities formed in early childhood, a period of dramatic growth and need for intensive interaction with an "invested adult", may have long-term implications for human development and personality. Human capital research analyzes the relationship between initial risk conditions (from the organic and the psychosocial dimension), investments and ability development to gain an understanding of the formation of competence, both from an economic and a psychological point of view.Our contribution to this burgeoning multidisciplinary literature on individual development is twofold. First, we present economic models of ability formation with unique data from a developmental psychological approach for the first time. The data are taken from the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk (MARS), an epidemiological cohort study that follows 384 children from birth to adulthood. MARS provides detailed psychometric and medical assessments as well as psychological expert ratings on various child outcome measures. We study data from infancy to adolescence with variables on initial risk conditions, on cognitive and motor abilities, as well as on persistence, a noncognitive ability. Second, we analyse the relationship between economic and socio-emotional home resources and the development of abilities, and investigate the predictive power of abilities acquired at preschool age for children's achievement at school age. This should deepen the understanding of competence formation from both an economic and a psychological perspective.Results indicate that differences in abilities at infancy increase until adolescence, while there is a remarkable stability in the distribution of the economic and socioemotional home resources during childhood. Initial organic and psychosocial risk conditions trigger a cumulative effect. Persistence fosters cognitive abilities and school achievement. Basic abilities at preschool age significantly predict social competencies and school grades. Higher basic abilities at primary school age and higher home resources predict a higher-track secondary school attendance. Growing up in an unfavourable socio-emotional family environment impedes the development of basic cognitive and motor abilities. The disadvantage continues until school age, an important stage for noncognitive ability formation. Disadvantaged children are impeded again ...

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp08100.pdf Nontechnical SummaryDeep-seated capabilities formed in early childhood, a period of dramatic growth and need for intensive interaction with an "invested adult", may have long-term implications for human development and personality. Human capital research analyzes the relationship between initial risk conditions (from the organic and the psychosocial dimension), investments and ability development to gain an understanding of the formation of competence, both from an economic and a psychological point of view.Our contribution to this burgeoning multidisciplinary literature on individual development is twofold. First, we present economic models of ability formation with unique data from a developmental psychological approach for the first time. The data are taken from the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk (MARS), an epidemiological cohort study that follows 384 children from birth to adulthood. MARS provides detailed psychometric and medical assessments as well as psychological expert ratings on various child outcome measures. We study data from infancy to adolescence with variables on initial risk conditions, on cognitive and motor abilities, as well as on persistence, a noncognitive ability. Second, we analyse the relationship between economic and socio-emotional home resources and the development of abilities, and investigate the predictive power of abilities acquired at preschool age for children's achievement at school age. This should deepen the understanding of competence formation from both an economic and a psychological perspective.Results indicate that differences in abilities at infancy increase until adolescence, while there is a remarkable stability in the distribution of the economic and socioemotional home resources during childhood. Initial organic and psychosocial risk conditions trigger a cumulative effect. Persistence fosters cognitive abilities and school achievement. Basic abilities at preschool age significantly predict social competencies and school grades. Higher basic abilities at primary school age and higher home resources predict a higher-track secondary school attendance. Growing up in an unfavourable socio-emotional family environment impedes the development of basic cognitive and motor abilities. The disadvantage continues until school age, an important stage for noncognitive ability formation. Disadvantaged children are impeded again ...

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp10028.pdf This study examines the impact of parental investments on the development of cognitive, mental and emotional skills during childhood using data from a 20-year longitudinal study, the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk, starting at birth. We find empirical evidence for sensitive and critical periods of cognitive and mental skills within the first eleven years of life. Non-technical summaryThis implies that parental investments are most efficient for both types of skills directly after birth and less efficient at age eight and turn ineffective later on. We find that cognitive skills are most important for predicting school success, followed by mental skills, while emotional skills are less important.Our results indicate that initial conditions matter throughout childhood and that organic risk (e.g. low birth weight) is more detrimental for the development of cognitive skills, while psychosocial risk (e.g. early pregnancy) is more detrimental for the development of mental and emotional skills regarding the effect of parental investments. We also find differences between girls and boys considering the effect of parental investments. Boys profit more from parental investments in terms of cognitive skill development, while their mental skill development is more independent. Girls, on the other hand, benefit more from high investments with respect to their mental skill development. we examine the skill development for girls and boys separately, as well as for children who were born with either organic or psychosocial risk. We find a decreasing impact of parental investments on cognitive and mental skills, while emotional skills seem to be unaffected by parental investment throughout childhood. Thus, initial inequality persists during childhood. Since families are the main sources of education during the first years of life, our results have important implications for the quality of the parent-child relationship. Das Wichtigste in Kürze