This paper evaluates the short-and medium-term health impacts of offering families with children under 5 universal access to centres providing childcare, health services, parenting support and parental job assistance. Increased access to these centres during early childhood increases the probability of hospitalisation for infants in the local area. As children age this effect turns negative and grows larger through primary and secondary school. The impacts are concentrated among boys from the poorest areas. The reductions in hospitalisations are driven by reduced infections, injuries, and mental health. The impacts during post-childcare age suggest that operating mechanisms are stronger immune systems, safer parenting practices and home environments, and improved emotional and behavioural development among children.

These effects are substantial; our calculations suggest that an additional centre per thousand children under 5, on average, generates around 6,700 additional hospitalisations of 1-year-olds each year. But it also prevents around 13,150 hospitalisations each year between the ages of 11 and 15 -meaning that Sure Start averts nearly twice as many hospitalisations among older children as it induces in 1year-olds.Our results also suggest that Sure Start had particularly big benefits for some groups of children. The fall in hospitalisations the programme brought about is concentrated among boys and, at later ages, in more disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Key findings1 Sure Start increased hospitalisations among very young children. At age 1, having access to an extra centre per thousand children under 5 increased the probability of a hospitalisation in the neighbourhood cohort by 10%. This translates to roughly 6,700 additional hospitalisations a year.2 However, Sure Start's effects on reducing hospitalisations during childhood and adolescence more than compensate for the increase in admissions at very young ages. At age 5, an additional centre per thousand children prevented around 2,900 hospitalisations a year; for 11-to 15-year-olds, the total was over 13,150 prevented hospitalisations each year.3 Sure Start's impacts on child health last well beyond the end of the programme itself. Indeed, some of the biggest impacts are only felt in adolescence, nearly a decade after children have 'aged out' of eligibility.4 Sure Start services seem to have affected children's health through several different channels. At younger ages, large impacts on infectious illness suggest that Sure Start significantly strengthened children's immune systems. A drop in poisonings in these age groups suggests that advice on child-proofing the home also had an effect. In

This paper evaluates the short-and medium-term health impacts of offering families with children under 5 universal access to centres providing childcare, health services, parenting support and parental job assistance. Increased access to these centres during early childhood increases the probability of hospitalisation for infants in the local area. As children age this effect turns negative and grows larger through primary and secondary school. The impacts are concentrated among boys from the poorest areas. The reductions in hospitalisations are driven by reduced infections, injuries, and mental health. The impacts during post-childcare age suggest that operating mechanisms are stronger immune systems, safer parenting practices and home environments, and improved emotional and behavioural development among children.

We examine the economic analysis of the relationship between innovation and product market competition. First, we give a brief tour of the intellectual history of the area. Second, we examine how the Aghion-Howitt framework has influenced the development of the literature theoretically and (especially) empirically, with an emphasis on the "inverted U": the idea that innovation rises and then eventually falls as the intensity of competition increases. Thirdly, we look at recent applications and development of the framework in the areas of competition policy, international trade and structural Industrial Organization.