Childcare Subsidies and Household Labor Supply

Nezih Guner, Gustavo Ventura and Remzi Kaygusuz ()

No 9775, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: What would be the aggregate effects of adopting a more generous and universal childcare subsidy program in the U.S.? We answer this question in a life-cycle equilibrium model with heterogeneous married and single households with three key features: (i) joint labor-supply of married households along extensive and intensive margins; (ii) heterogeneity in terms of the presence of children across households; (iii) skill losses of females associated to non participation. We find that subsidies have substantial effects on female labor supply and lead to a large reallocation of hours worked from males to females. Fully subsidized childcare available to all households leads to longrun increases in the participation of married females and total hours worked by about 10.1% and 1.0%, respectively, and to a decline of male hours by 1.5%. There are large differences across households in welfare gains, as a small number of households?poorer households with children? gain significantly while others lose. Welfare gains of newborn households amount to 1.9%.

Keywords: Childcare; Household labor supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E62 H24 H31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Childcare Subsidies and Household Labor Supply (2015)
Working Paper: Childcare Subsidies and Household Labor Supply (2014)
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