Varshney, Nishank2023-11-282023-11-282023-05https://hdl.handle.net/11299/258679University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. May 2023. Major: Public Affairs. Advisor: Judy Temple. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 146 pages.Despite growing evidence about the significance of Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs, public investment has been relatively low, resulting in slower expansion of evidence-based ECD programs. This dissertation consists of three essays on conducting and using economic evaluation methods to scale up early childhood education and development programs. Specifically, I conduct a benefit-cost analysis of the Chicago Child-Parent Center (CPC) preschool program, with a focus on health outcomes in mid-adulthood. Further, I analyze the costs of implementing the expansion of the CPC program to four districts in the Midwestern US. I discuss the costs required to scale up an evidence-based high-quality preschool program with a focus on estimating the marginal costs of each of the program’s six quality elements. Finally, I review the existing economic evaluations of Nurse-Family Partnership Home Visiting programs and suggest two innovative financial mechanisms – Pay for Success (PFS) and Data-Driven Philanthropy that can be used to expand access to home-visiting programs by leveraging public-private partnerships.enCost Benefit AnalysisEarly Childhood DevelopmentEarly Childhood EducationHome VisitingNurse Family PartnershipPreschoolThesis or Dissertation