Identifying the Effects of a Program Offer with an Application to Head Start

Understand

I propose a treatment selection model that introduces unobserved heterogeneity in both choice sets and preferences to evaluate the average effects of a program offer.

• I show how to exploit the model structure to define parameters capturing these effects and then computationally characterize their identified sets under instrumental variable variation in choice sets.
• I illustrate these tools by analyzing the effects of providing an offer to the Head Start preschool program using data from the Head Start Impact Study.
• I find that such a policy affects a large number of children who take up the offer, and that they subsequently have positive effects on test scores.