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August 19, 2026

The lasting gains of universal preschool

Evidence from Israel’s 1999 preschool law shows that disadvantaged communities can benefit from universal preschool education.

Tyler Smith

Source: CherylCasey

Governments across the developed world have embraced large-scale public preschool as a tool for reducing inequality and promoting intergenerational mobility. And while small, intensive programs, such as the Perry Preschool project, have been heralded as great successes among economists, the evidence for whether universal programs deliver similar benefits has been harder to establish.

In a paper in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, authors Elad DeMalach and Analia Schlosser provide a causal analysis of the life cycle impacts of universal preschool by leveraging Israel's 1999 implementation of free public preschool.

The researchers tracked individuals for up to 20 years after Israel began implementing its Compulsory and Free Preschool Law for Ages 3 and 4 in September 1999. Although the law promised free preschool nationwide, implementation began in the most disadvantaged localities, 91 percent of which were Arab. 

Comparing cohorts who reached preschool age before and after the reform across 15 treatment localities and 22 comparison localities in Israel’s northern district, they found that universal preschool improved academic achievement, reduced juvenile delinquency, and delayed early marriage among Israeli Arabs. 

Figure 3 from the authors’ paper illustrates their central findings. It presents event-study estimates for eight high school outcomes, plotted against the year a child turned four relative to the law's implementation.

Figure 3 from DeMalach and Schlosser (2026)

Each panel traces treatment effects—the average difference between cohorts who went through the program and those who did not—from four years before the reform to four years after, with 95 percent confidence intervals. 

In the pre-reform years, estimates hover near zero with no discernible trend. After implementation, the estimates shift upward across outcomes, including an index of high school performance, participation in national high school exit exams, the number of science subjects taken, and other indicators of academic achievement. 

The magnitudes from the full difference-in-differences estimates were substantial. Exposed children were 2.8 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school, 4.3 percentage points more likely to earn a matriculation certificate (a prerequisite for university admissions), and 5.3 percentage points more likely to enroll in postsecondary education. Outside of the classroom, boys were 3 percentage points less likely to acquire a juvenile criminal record, and women were about 2 percentage points less likely to marry by age 21.

The findings lend support to the idea that universal preschool can deliver lasting benefits in disadvantaged communities.