Behavioral Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment

Henning Hermes, Philipp Lergetporer (), Frauke Peter and Simon Wiederhold ()
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Philipp Lergetporer: Technical University of Munich & ifo Institute at the University of Munich and CESifo

Munich Papers in Political Economy from Munich School of Politics and Public Policy and the School of Management at the Technical University of Munich

Abstract: Children with lower socioeconomic status (SES) tend to benefit more from early child care, but are substantially less likely to be enrolled. We study whether reducing behavioral barriers in the application process increases enrollment in child care for lower-SES children. In our RCT in Germany with highly subsidized child care (n > 600), treated families receive application information and personal assistance for applications. For lower-SES families, the treatment increases child care application rates by 21 pp and enrollment rates by 16 pp. Higher-SES families are not affected by the treatment. Thus, alleviating behavioral barriers closes half of the SES gap in early child care enrollment.

Keywords: Child care; early childhood; behavioral barriers; information; educational inequality; randomized controlled trial (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I21 J13 J18 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 68 pages
Date: 2021-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur, nep-exp and nep-isf
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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https://cms.mgt.tum.de/fileadmin/mgt.tum.de/facult ... _HLPW_BBCC_final.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Behavioral Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment (2021)
Working Paper: Behavioral Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment (2021)
Working Paper: Behavioral Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment (2021)
Working Paper: Behavioral Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aiw:wpaper:15

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