Early Child Care and Labor Supply of Lower-SES Mothers: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Henning Hermes, Marina Krauß, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter and Simon Wiederhold
Additional contact information
Marina Krauß: University of Augsburg
Philipp Lergetporer: Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Management, ifo Institute Munich
Simon Wiederhold: KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Ingolstadt School of Management, ifo Institute Munich

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: We present experimental evidence that enabling access to universal early child care for families with lower socioeconomic status (SES) increases maternal labor supply. Our intervention provides families with customized help for child care applications, resulting in a large increase in enrollment among lower-SES families. The treatment increases lower-SES mothers’ full-time employment rates by 9 percentage points (+160%), household income by 10%, and mothers’ earnings by 22%. The effect on full-time employment is largely driven by increased care hours provided by child care centers and fathers. Overall, the treatment substantially improves intra-household gender equality in terms of child care duties and earnings.

Keywords: Child care; maternal employment; gender equality; randomized controlled trial (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D90 J13 J18 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59 pages
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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https://cms.mgt.tum.de/fileadmin/mgt.tum.de/facult ... ply_December2022.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Early Child Care and Labor Supply of Lower-SES Mothers: A Randomized Controlled Trial (2023)
Working Paper: Early Child Care and Labor Supply of Lower-SES Mothers: A Randomized Controlled Trial (2022)
Working Paper: Early child care and labor supply of lower-SES mothers: A randomized controlled trial (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aiw:wpaper:25

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