Too Hard, Too Easy, or Just Right: The Productivity of Schooling and the Match between Child Skill and School Complexity.

This study focuses on modeling the heterogeneous effects of schooling by emphasizing that learning is maximized when a child's skill level matches the complexity of the school's learning experiences. Using longitudinal data from the Young Lives Study on children in Peru, India, and Vietnam, the research finds that the productivity of schooling follows an inverted-U relationship with early childhood skill: increasing skill enhances schooling productivity up to the point of match with school complexity, beyond which further skill increases reduce productivity due to mismatch. The study employs a dynamic panel data approach with instrumental variables to identify these effects and highlights the importance of tailoring educational inputs to individual student competencies. These findings provide empirical support for pedagogical strategies like "teaching at the right level" and contribute to understanding how early childhood skill influences the effectiveness of later schooling inputs.