Daycare Choice and Ethnic Diversity: Evidence from a Randomized Survey

Mongoljin Batsaikhan (), Mette Gørtz, John Kennes, Ran Sun Lyng (), Daniel Monte and Norovsambuu Tumennasan ()
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Ran Sun Lyng: Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark, Postal: 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark
Daniel Monte: Sao Paulo School of Economics- FGV, Brasil

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University

Abstract: We study parental daycare choice using a randomized online survey of parents in Copenhagen. The survey respondents were asked to choose between two daycares — structured vs. free-play. In describing these hypothetical choices, the survey used testimonials from (fictive) parents whose child allegedly attended the institution, and we randomized the names of the testifying parents across the sample so that some had typical Danes names, while other names were associated with ethnic minorities. Our main findings point towards discrimination against ethnic minorities. This finding is most pronounced among parents who prefer the structured institution. Adding information about the profession of the testifiers did not significantly alter signs of lower preferences for daycares with ethnic minority names, (cautiously) suggesting that this discrimination is taste-based rather than statistical. Finally, we asked the respondents to report a willingness to travel a further distance to get to their preferred daycare (structured or free-play, respectively). Our results show that willingness to travel to the preferred daycare is higher for parents who prefer the structured daycare when there was an ethnic minority name associated with the free-play daycare.

Keywords: School choice; Discrimination; Survey; Early childhood education; Randomized experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 I24 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48
Date: 2019-02-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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