Comment by shoo

The authors don't appear to be directly arguing that (at least not in the conclusion, i didn't read the body of the paper)

The authors seem to be arguing that development of non-cognitive skills is important for long-term health, life satisfaction, etc, and that childcare programs that do not measure and attempt to support development of non-cognitive skills may therefore be somewhat harmful. It is possible that some childcare programs may support development of non-cognitive skills, but the Quebec childcare program that they analysed did not.

  > We find that the Quebec policy [of making non-parental child care much more affordable]
  > had a lasting negative impact on the non-cognitive skills of exposed children, but no consistent 
  > impact on their cognitive skills.  At older ages, program exposure is associated with worsened 
  > health and life satisfaction, and increased rates of criminal activity.  Increases in aggression and 
  > hyperactivity are concentrated in boys, as is the rise in the crime rates. 

  > [these findings] provide strong support for the argument that non-cognitive development is a
  > crucial determinant of the long-term success of child care programs. This suggests that
  > measuring the impact of child care programs on the non-cognitive development is important.
  > When a child care program fails to improve non-cognitive development, it may have no
  > long-standing positive effects on children.  

  > [...] An important outstanding question is whether universally provided child care can have
  > widespread positive impacts on non-cognitive development, which our results together with
  > evidence such as Heckman et al. (2013) suggest should lead to long run positive outcomes.