Over the last decades, most countries have experienced increased social inequalities along many dimensions, including education, employment, income, physical and mental health. These changes are all critical for the well-being of individuals and their families. Coinciding with the increase in social inequality, many societies have experienced that the behavioral problems, educational and labor market outcomes have been widening more for men than for women. Importantly, a growing literature across many fields, has documented that the socioeconomic gradient shows up early in life, and the gap continues to grow into adulthood, and the gap persists across generations. The course will focus on the literature aiming at understanding the role of early childhood development and early childhood investments, and how this plays out over the life cycle. There will be a strong focus on human capital investment, and the role of human capital formation in understanding the observer inequality