Why policies for children, early education and culture?

Scitovsky argued that an economy is joyless if it does not pay attention to children and humanistic culture. With the help of a model, this paper reconsiders this intuition on the basis of recent empirical research in economics, as well as in psychology. New priorities for public policy may thus emerge. In fact, early intervention seems especially effective in preventing behavioural, social, and health problems in adulthood, while later remediation is more costly. Inadequate parenting in response to children's psychological needs, and boredom appear to play a significant part in individuals' later undesirable behaviours. Secondly, parenting which creates stimulating conditions for children help maintain their intrinsic motivations over the life-cycle, with the powerful consequence that learning becomes both pleasurable and skills-accumulating. Thirdly, humanistic culture induces individuals to engage in wider and deeper thinking, thus helping them to evaluate different options in different fields, and to find satisfactory challenging activities.