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Science 30 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5782, pp. 1900 - 1902
DOI: 10.1126/science.1128898
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Perspective

Skill Formation and the Economics of Investing in Disadvantaged Children

James J. Heckman

This paper summarizes evidence on the effects of early environments on child, adolescent, and adult achievement. Life cycle skill formation is a dynamic process in which early inputs strongly affect the productivity of later inputs.

Department of Economics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. Department of Economics, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.

E-mail: jjh{at}uchicago.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)