Economic Evidence for Early Childhood Development Interventions in Low-and Middle-Income Countries

This thesis examines the economic evidence of early childhood development interventions in low-and middle-income countries. Five studies are presented, including a systematic review, a scoping review, a trial-based cost-effectiveness analysis, an equity-informative cost-effectiveness analysis, and a Markov model. The findings suggest that well-designed early childhood development interventions can be cost-effective and promote equity. Understanding the long-term economic value of investing in early childhood development, the development of economic evaluation guidelines to improve the quality of evidence generation, and more support to local researchers can further inform decision-making to achieve early childhood development and equity.