가정환경 및 정부정책과 아동발달: 아동패널 자료에 대한 실증분석

Abstract

This paper empirically examine the relationship among the family background, government subsidy on child education and child development using the Panel Study in Korean Children data set. The empirical results indicate that the government intervention to the early childhood education makes positive effects on child development by urging children to attend educational institutions from early age. It turns out that children who are using educational institutions usually have higher development indices than those who are not using any institution. The family background also makes strong effect on childhood development. It is found that the higher family income, the higher probability of attending kindergarten. But the child development indices are more closely related to the mother's educational level than to the household income. Despite the partial success of government subsidy on the child education in increasing the probability of using educational institution, the subsidy system does not seem to narrow the huge gaps in educational opportunities by household income. As of 2012, children from low-income families with government subsidy do not engage in various activities, such as after-school programs and private tutoring that those from high income families are usually taking. There seem to be large room for improving subsidy scheme so that it can provide more educational opportunities to children from the lower-income family.