Here are some useful resources that build the connection between early child development and economic development.
The 1998 Commission on the Future of the South report [1]
The Economics of Early Childhood Development: Lessons for Economic Policy: [2] Conference sponsored by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank in October 2003
Reports from the Minneapolis Fed on Early Child Development [3]
The Committee on Economic Development has produced a number of reports and working papers. You can get a summary from this page [4]. The CED publications include:
Links:
[1] http://www.southern.org/pubs/connections/connections.shtml
[2] http://minneapolisfed.org/research/studies/earlychild/2003conf/
[3] http://minneapolisfed.org/research/studies/earlychild/
[4] http://www.ced.org/projects/prek.shtml
[5] http://www.ced.org/docs/report/report_preschool_2004_assessingbenefits.pdf