Full Citation
Title: Kindergartens and Intergenerational Mobility
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2025
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20251024
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Abstract: Recent work has shown that children of immigrants were more economically mobile than those of natives in the early twentieth century United States and that this trend continues for more recent cohorts (Abramitzky et al. 2021). However, immigrant children are more likely to grow up in low-income households and often remain economically disadvantaged compared to native-born adults. We evaluate the impact of the introduction of kindergartens in the early twentieth century United States on the intergenerational mobility of children from both immigrant and native families. Friedrich Froebel operated the first kindergarten in Germany in 1837. The first kindergartens in the United States emerged during the late 1850s and the 1860s, but the widespread adoption of kindergartens in public school systems only occurred toward the end of the nineteenth century. The first public kindergarten opened in St. Louis in 1873. Between 1892 and 1912, the number of cities increased from 137 in 1892 to 867 in 1912. By 1912, the number increased to 6,563 public kindergartens with about 300,000 children enrolled. Kindergartens were largely an urban phenomenon, with 60 percent of five-to-six-year-old children enrolled in cities, and they were largely free. They sought to prepare children for primary school and aimed to assimilate immigrant children (Ager and Cinnirella 2020; US Bureau of Education 1914).
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Authors: Ager, Philipp; Cinnirella, Francesco; Eriksson, Katherine; Malein, Viktor
Periodical (Full): AEA Papers and Proceedings
Issue: 1
Volume: 115
Pages: 415-420
Data Collections: IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data
Topics: Education, Migration and Immigration, Poverty and Welfare
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