کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
969035 | 1479467 | 2011 | 11 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
The strong correlation between child care and maternal employment rates has led previous research to conclude that affordable and readily available child care is a driving force both of cross-country differences in maternal employment and of its rapid growth over the last decades. We analyze a staged expansion of subsidized child care in Norway. Our precise and robust difference-in-differences estimates reveal that there is little, if any, causal effect of subsidized child care on maternal employment, despite a strong correlation. Instead of increasing mothers' labor supply, the new subsidized child care mostly crowds out informal child care arrangements, suggesting a significant net cost of the child care subsidies.
Research Highlights
► A large body of descriptive evidence suggests that child care availability is a driving force of maternal employment.
► We analyze a staged expansion of subsidized child care in Norway using difference-in-differences.
► We find little, if any, causal effect of subsidized child care on maternal employment.
► The new subsidized child care mostly crowds out informal child care arrangements.
► This suggests a significant net cost of the child care subsidies.
Journal: Journal of Public Economics - Volume 95, Issues 11–12, December 2011, Pages 1455–1465