The Impact of Non-Parental Child Care on Child Development: Evidence from the Summer Participation

Chris M. Herbst ()
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Chris M. Herbst: Arizona State University

No 7039, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Although a large literature examines the effect of non-parental child care on preschool-aged children's cognitive development, few studies deal convincingly with the potential endogeneity of child care choices. Using a panel of infants and toddlers from the Birth cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B), this paper attempts to provide causal estimates by leveraging heretofore unrecognized seasonal variation in child care participation. Child assessments in the ECLS-B were conducted on a rolling basis throughout the year, and I use the participation "dip" among those assessed during the summer as the basis for an instrumental variable. The summer participation "dip" is likely to be exogenous because ECLS-B administrators strictly controlled the mechanism by which children were assigned to assessment dates. The OLS results show that children utilizing non-parental arrangements score higher on tests of mental ability, a finding that holds after accounting for individual fixed effects. However, the instrumental variables estimates point to sizeable negative effects of non-parental care. The adverse effects are driven by participation in formal settings, and, contrary to previous research, I find that disadvantaged children do not benefit from exposure to non-parental child care settings.

Keywords: child development; maternal employment; child care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 75 pages
Date: 2012-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Journal of Public Economics, 2013, 105, 86–105

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