Ludwig and Miller (2007) Impact of Head Start Program on Children's Life Chances

Examines the effect of the Head Start program on child mortality and other socioeconomic indicators across U.S. counties. Includes variables on poverty rates, mortality rates by age and cause, and census data from 1960 for 2,783 U.S. counties.

Usage

lm2007

Format

A data frame with 2,783 rows and 17 variables:

state: State name.
povrate60: County poverty rate in 1960 (percent).
mort_age59_related_posths: Mortality rate for ages 5-9 from Head Start-related causes, 1973-1983.
mort_age59_injury_posths: Mortality rate for ages 5-9 from injuries, 1973-1983.
mort_age59_all_posths: Mortality rate for ages 5-9 from all causes, 1973-1983.
mort_age25plus_related_posths: Mortality rate for ages 25+ from Head Start-related causes, 1973-1983.
mort_age25plus_injuries_posths: Mortality rate for ages 25+ from injuries, 1973-1983.
mort_age59_related_prehs: Mortality rate for ages 5-9 from Head Start-related causes, 1959-1964.
census1960_pop: County population according to the 1960 Census.
census1960_pctsch1417: Percentage of population aged 14-17 attending school, 1960.
census1960_pctsch534: Percentage of population aged 5-34 attending school, 1960.
census1960_pctsch25plus: Percentage of population aged 25+ with a high school education or more, 1960.
census1960_pop1417: Population aged 14-17, 1960.
census1960_pop534: Population aged 5-34, 1960.
census1960_pop25plus: Population aged 25+, 1960.
census1960_pcturban: Percentage of urban population, 1960.
census1960_pctblack: Percentage of Black population, 1960.

Source

Ludwig, J., & Miller, D. L. (2007). "Does Head Start improve children's life chances? Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Quarterly Journal of Economics 122(1), 159-1208.
Matias D. Cattaneo, Rocio Titiunik, and Gonzalo Vazquez-Bare (2017) "Comparing inference approaches for RD designs: A reexamination of the effect of head start on child mortality," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 36, 643-681.'

Details

Abridged version of "headstart.dta" downloaded from https://github.com/rdpackages-replication/CTV_2017_JPAM which is a subset of that used by Ludwig and Miller and was provided for replication associated with Cattaneo, Titiunik, and Vazquez-Bare. Counties were deleted for which povrate60 or mort_age59_related_posths were missing.