Overview
Flavio Cunha is an economist at the University of Pennsylvania whose research focuses on human capital formation, early childhood skill development, and the economics of education. He is best known for joint work with James Heckman on the technology of skill formation (showing that early childhood investments have the highest returns and that skills beget skills across developmental stages) and on ex ante vs. ex post returns to schooling. His methodological contributions center on factor models for identifying distributions of unobservable heterogeneity in economic outcomes.
Key Contributions
- Cunha and Heckman (2007): "Identifying and Estimating the Distributions of Ex Post and Ex Ante Returns to Schooling." Review of Economic Studies 74(2): 301–328. Distinguishes the return an agent expects when choosing to attend college (ex ante) from the return actually realized (ex post); shows that roughly half of ex post return variability was unforeseeable at decision time; uses factor model to identify both distributions separately.
- Technology of Skill Formation: Joint work with Heckman showing that cognitive and non-cognitive skills are complements across developmental stages, early investments have the highest returns, and skill gaps by family income open in the first five years of life. Foundation for Perry Preschool and other early childhood intervention evaluations.
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