In the research project "Economic Analysis of Pre-School Investments in Skills" we started to examine the technology of skill formation and the nature of the skill multiplier from early childhood. The transactions between the individual, her parents and other teachers shape human capital formation over the life cycle. Although many features of development are universal, benefits vary considerably between individuals, families, schools and the economy. Research indicates that manifold youthful impressions, the matrix of factors from the inside and the outside, exert a significant multiplier effect on later development. Economic research on the developmental process (based on reliable longitudinal data) is still rare, especially for early childhood. More research is needed to answer the question of how agents paid by the government or some other institution, namely teachers, can efficiently counteract poor home resources to improve children’s achievement, among others.The Leibniz network "Noncognitive Skills: Acquisition and Economic Consequences", an international and multidisciplinary effort initiated and coordinated by the ZEW, conducts applied research to reduce the gap in understanding the association between youthful impressions and human capital formation (until 2010).