Money for Nothing? Universal Child Care and Maternal Employment

Tarjei Havnes and Magne Mogstad

No 24/2009, Memorandum from Oslo University, Department of Economics

Abstract: The strong correlation between child care and maternal employment rates has led previous research to conclude that a ordable and readily available child care is a driving force both of cross-country di erences in maternal employment and of its rapid growth over the last decades. We analyze the introduction of subsidized, universally accessible child care in Norway. Our precise and robust di erence-in-di erences estimates reveal that there is little, if any, causal e ect of 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 signi cant net cost of the child care subsidies.

Keywords: universal child care; female labor force participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H40 J13 J21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2009-10-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Forthcoming as Havnes, Tarjei and Magne Mogstad, 'Money for Nothing? Universal Child Care and Maternal Employment' in Journal of Public Economics.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Money for nothing? Universal child care and maternal employment (2011)
Working Paper: Money for Nothing? Universal Child Care and Maternal Employment (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:osloec:2009_024

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