Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP9274
Authors: Christina Felfe; Rafael Lalive
Abstract: Many countries are currently expanding access to child care for young children. But are all children equally likely to benefit from such expansions? We address this question by adopting a marginal treatment effects framework. We study the West German setting where high quality center-based care is severely rationed and use within state differences in child care supply as exogenous variation in child care attendance. Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel provides comprehensive information on child development measures along with detailed information on child care, mother-child interactions, and maternal labor supply. Results indicate strong differences in the effects of child care with respect to observed characteristics (children?s age, birth weight and socio-economic background), but less so with respect to unobserved determinants of selection into child care. Underlying mechanisms are a substitution of maternal care with center-based care, an increase in average quality of maternal care, and an increase in maternal earnings.
Keywords: child care; child development; marginal treatment effects
JEL Codes: I21; I38; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Child care supply (J13) | Child care attendance (J13) |
| Child care attendance (J13) | Child development (J13) |
| Higher education and higher income (I23) | Child care registration (J13) |
| Child care attendance (J13) | Reduction in time spent in low-quality maternal care (J22) |
| Child care attendance (J13) | Increase in frequency of high-quality maternal activities (J13) |
| Child care attendance (J13) | Increase in maternal labor supply and income (J49) |
| Increase in household income (D19) | Improved child development (J13) |
| Child care supply (J13) | Child development (J13) |