Do high childcare costs and low access to Head Start and childcare subsidies limit mothers' employment? A state-level analysis (original) (raw)
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Child Care Subsidies and Employment Behavior Among Very-Low-Income Populations in Three States
Review of Policy Research, 2006
Using merged administrative data from welfare reform evaluations in three states, we estimate the effects of child care subsidy use on the length of time it takes for a welfare applicant to move into substantial employment. Findings show that the use of a child care subsidy during an unemployed or marginally employed spell of welfare receipt is associated with between a 0.6 and 1.7 quarter (or 11% to 34%) reduction in the time to substantial employment in two of the three state samples. The positive influence of subsidy use on transitions to substantial employment is strongest for those welfare applicants with the lowest earnings who are mixing welfare and work prior to subsidy receipt.
This study investigates the relationship between maternal employment and state-to-state differences in childcare cost and mean school day length. Pairing state-level measures with an individual-level sample of prime working-age mothers from the American Time Use Survey (2005–2014; n = 37,993), we assess the multilevel and time-varying effects of childcare costs and school day length on maternal full-time and part-time employment and childcare time. We find mothers’ odds of full-time employment are lower and part-time employment higher in states with expensive childcare and shorter school days. Mothers spend more time caring for children in states where childcare is more expensive and as childcare costs increase. Our results suggest that expensive childcare and short school days are important barriers to maternal employment and, for childcare costs, result in greater investments in childcare time. Politicians engaged in national debates about federal childcare policies should look to existing state childcare structures for policy guidance.
We use IV estimation based on a kindergarten eligibility cutoff to provide a high internal validity causal estimate of the effect of subsidized childcare availability on mothers’ labor supply. Contrary to prior cutoff-based studies, we estimate at a child age when the mothers’ activity rate is still well below that of women, thus lack of childcare is potentially a binding constraint, and policy intervention may be effective. Our methodology ensures that similar individuals are compared, and possible seasonal effects are corrected for using difference in differences. The results show that access to subsidized childcare increases maternal participation by 19 percent.
Parent Employment and the Use of Child Care Subsidies
2006
Research Connections and its web site are operated by a partnership among the National Center for Children in Poverty at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, and the Child Care Bureau, Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Public Childcare, Child Development, and Labor Market Outcomes∗
2021
This study examines the impact of publicly provided daycare for children age 0-3 on subsequent child development and household outcomes over the course of seven years after daycare enrollment. The city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil used a lottery to assign children to limited public daycare openings. Winning the lottery translated to one additional semester of daycare center attendance. Incomes for beneficiary households and labor force participation for the primary caregiver were significantly higher in the first year of daycare attendance and four years later. Labor force participation also rose for siblings and grandparents in the household; grandparents were 20 percentage points more likely to be employed four years after enrollment. Beneficiary children had improved height-for-age and weight-for-age, and both of these impacts persisted seven years after enrollment. There were also gains in the cognitive development of children four years after daycare enrolment, but they fade ove...
Does Access to Preschool Increase Women’s Employment?
• An additional public preschool per 1,000 children raises the employment of mothers of eligible-aged children by 6.9 percentage points, an increase of about 13%. • Availability of public preschools also has positive, but smaller effects on mothers with children younger than eligible age. Women with younger children may take into account future childcare options when making decisions about work. • Private preschools, which cost more on average and have greater variability in terms of quality compared to public preschools, have no impact on women's employment. CONTEXT Women's employment in Indonesia, at 48.7%, is significantly below the regional average of 56.9%. 1 Halim, Johnson and Perova (2017) 2 find that lack of access to informal childcare arrangements with grandparents or other elderly adults in the household is correlated with withdrawal from work. However, there is no evidence on whether formal childcare arrangements such as preschools or daycare centers impact women's labor market choices in Indonesia.
Does Subsidized Childcare Matter for Maternal Labor Supply? A Policy-Relevant Cutoff- Based Estimate
2015
We estimate the effect of subsidized childcare availability on Hungarian mothers’ labor supply based on a discontinuity in kindergarten eligibility rules. The effect is identified at a child age when the mothers’ participation rate is still lower compared to mothers with older children, thus lack of childcare is potentially a binding constraint and policy intervention may be effective. Our sampling methodology ensures that similar individuals are compared, and seasonal effects are corrected for using a combination of instrumental variables and difference in differences. The results show that, despite an otherwise unsupportive institutional setting, access to subsidized childcare increases maternal labor market participation by 18 percent compared to the 51.5% baseline rate. A comprehensive policy approach could therefore achieve even greater results.
Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 2009
Evidence regarding the degree to which child care subsidies support low-income, employed parents' financial resources is lacking. This study used two samples to evaluate the impact of child care subsidies on parents' child care payments and the percentage of household income spent on child care. Cross-sectional and longitudinal multivariate models were supplemented with descriptive information on parents' perceptions of the impacts of child care costs and child care subsidies on family finances. Child care subsidies were found to reduce child care costs by a small but statistically significant amount. Approximately half of parents who received a subsidy reported that it positively affected their financial well-being, allowing them to afford non-child care services, save money, and pay bills or debts. Keywords Child care Á Cost Á Finances Á Subsidy Among low-income parents, particularly single parents, child care plays a critical role in employment and economic self-sufficiency (Herbst and Barnow 2008). Though child care generally facilitates employment; being unable to afford or access high-quality care can serve as a barrier to employment (Berry et al. 2008). Additionally, among employed parents, child care is often a significant family
Child-care subsidies and child-care choices over time
Child development
The evidence to date on the federal child-care subsidy program's effect on preschool child-care quality is mixed. However, an as-yet untested outcome of subsidy receipt is subsequent child-care choice. Specifically, it is possible that subsidy receipt in toddlerhood increases the likelihood of attending other publicly funded preschool programs-Head Start and public pre-k-that provide the highest quality care available to low-income families. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (n ≈ 2,100; approximately 2 years old), this study finds that subsidy receipt during toddlerhood predicts greater use of the other forms of publicly funded care in the preschool year, although only if the earlier subsidy is used in a center. These results highlight a previously unconsidered potential benefit of the subsidy program.
2007
Work requirements implemented through welfare reform have led to a focus on moving mothers into employment. As a consequence, the labor force participation rates of single mothers have increased dramatically in the last decade, increasing the importance of child care policies. Although numerous studies have examined the impact of child care subsidies in assisting parents to obtain employment, very few have examined the impact of subsidies on maintaining employment. This study sought to determine whether families with a child care subsidy differed from families without a subsidy on three child care-specific variables assumed to affect a mother's ability to maintain employment: child care problems, child care-related work disruptions, and a desire to switch care arrangements. The mediating roles of child care costs and type of care on the relationships between child care subsidies and these variables were also examined. Data for this study come from two samples of low-income single mothers. The first was a study of 40 mothers in a mid-Atlantic county interviewed before and after receiving a child care subsidy. The second was a subsample of 658 mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being study. Data were analyzed via multivariate techniques and path models on both static and dynamic models, including comparing changes by the same parents over time. Receipt of a child care subsidy was found to be a significant predictor of experiencing fewer child care problems and child care-related work disruptions across datasets and using multiple methods. Parents were also less likely to report desiring to switch their care arrangement when they had a child care subsidy compared to when they did not have a subsidy. Finally, the use of formal child care was found to mediate the relationship between child care subsidy status and child care-related work disruptions for parents in one of the samples. Policy and program recommendations for assisting lowincome families balance work and family by minimizing experiences with child carerelated work disruptions are discussed.