Early Childhood Education and Child Development: New Evidence from Ghana

•We exploit Ghana’s 2011 MICS to build a multidimensional early child development (MECD) index.•MECD measures child development in the domains of literacy, social, physical and learning.•We estimate the effect of ECE on MECD using an endogenous treatment effect model.•We find that ECE is a positive predictor of MECD.•Mother’s education and father’s involvement in childcare also increase MECD. Early childhood education (ECE) has received rising interest from researchers in recent years. However, its effect on child development is still unclear in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study aims to shed light on the contribution of ECE in children’s development, using robust econometric estimations. We exploit data from the 2011 round of the Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), to build a multidimensional early child development index that accounts for children’s ability to read, count, recognize numbers, interact with peers and other people, follow rules and be independent as well as their health outcomes and physical skills. Then, we estimate the effect of ECE on child development using an endogenous treatment effect model to account for children unequal access to ECE. Results indicate that attending to ECE program increases children early development indicators. We also found that mother’s education, father’s involvement and living in urban area increase child development. These findings are robust to several changes in the specifications. Policy makers and ECE program planners in Ghana should consider investing in preschool education, especially for underprivileged children, in order to build a strong foundation for Ghana’s human resource development.