Early Child Care and Child Development: For Whom it Works and Why

Rafael Lalive and Christina Felfe

No 9274, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

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 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I38 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-eur
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Early Child Care and Child Development: For Whom It Works and Why (2013)
Working Paper: Early Child Care and Child Development: For Whom it Works and Why (2012)
Working Paper: Early Child Care and Child Development: For Whom it Works and Why (2012)
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