Childcare and Mothers’ Labor Market Outcomes in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries

Daniel Halim, Elizaveta Perova and Sarah Reynolds

The World Bank Research Observer, 2023, vol. 38, issue 1, 73-114

Abstract: Improving women's labor force participation and the quality of their employment can boost economic growth and support poverty and inequality reduction; thus, it is highly pertinent for the development agenda. However, existing systematic reviews on female labor market outcomes and childcare, which can arguably improve these outcomes, are focused on developed countries. We review 22 studies which plausibly identify the causal impact of institutional childcare on maternal labor market outcomes in lower-and-middle income countries. All but one study finds positive impacts on the extensive or intensive margin of maternal labor market outcomes, which aligns with findings from developed countries. We further analyze aspects of childcare design, including hours, ages of children, coordination with other childcare services that may increase the impacts on maternal labor market outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of directions for future research.

Keywords: childcare; female labor market outcomes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/wbro/lkac003 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:wbrobs:v:38:y:2023:i:1:p:73-114.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The World Bank Research Observer is currently edited by Peter Lanjouw

More articles in The World Bank Research Observer from World Bank Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().