出版社：Suntory Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines
摘要：In October 1998, we convened scholars, policy makers, and practitioners to review what we know about the processes that affect child development and how we might wisely increase public and private investments in children to promote both their well-being and the productivity of the next generation. The conference, held at Columbia University in New York and sponsored by the Ford Foundation’s Programme on Asset Building and Community Development, brought together US psychologists, economists, sociologists, demographers, political scientists, social workers, and medical doctors. We began by examining current investments in children and how they affect the development of the skills and competencies children need to succeed as adults in work, family, and society. Then we reviewed and synthesised what we have learned about childhood interventions from birth to college and what further investments in children are required, especially for disadvantaged children. In this paper, we review the background to the conference, summarise the findings of the conference, and outline our views regarding a number of key investments. We conclude that there is no better way to break the cycle of poverty and inequality than to invest in children. We propose expanding investments in five key areas: programmes to improve the health of women of childbearing age; early childhood interventions, targeted to the most disadvantaged children; measures to raise the quality of child care and pre-school education; after-school and mentoring programmes; and programmes to raise the level of college attendance by high-ability youth from low-income families.
