Universal Child Care Research Articles

Canadian evidence on ten years of universal preschool policies: The good and the bad

More than ten years ago, to increase mothers’ participation in the labour market and to enhance child development, the province of Québec implemented a $5 per day universal childcare policy. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the impact of the program over more than 10years after its implementation. A nonexperimental evaluation framework based on multiple pre- and posttreatment periods is used to estimate the policy effects. We find that the reform had important and lasting effects on the number of children aged 1–4years old attending childcare and the numbers of hours they spend in daycare. For children aged 5years old, we uncovered strong evidence that implementing full-day kindergarten alone was not enough to increase maternal labour force participation and weeks worked, but when combined with the low-fee daycare program it was, and these effects were also long lasting. Finally, our results on cognitive development suggest the reform did not improve school readiness and may even have had negative impacts on children from low-income families.

The effect of universal child benefits on labour supply

AbstractUsing a difference‐in‐differences estimator, I find the Canadian Universal Child Care Benefit has significant negative income effects on the labour supply of married individuals. The likelihood of lower‐educated mothers to participate in the labour force is reduced 3.2 percentage points when receiving the benefit. Median hours worked per week among lower‐educated mothers is reduced by 1.9 hours. The effects on higher‐educated mothers are substantial, with median hours worked among higher‐educated mothers reduced by nearly one hour per week. For men, the evidence suggests small but significant income effects on labour supply, consistent with the literature on labour supply elasticities.

Full-time universal childcare in a context of low maternal employment: Quasi-experimental evidence from Spain

Using a natural experiment framework, we study the effects of offering full-time public childcare for 3-year-olds in a context of low female labor force participation and insufficient infrastructure of childcare slots. We find that two mothers entered employment for every ten additional children enrolled in public childcare. The effect is driven by mothers 30years old and older and those with two children or more. While our estimates compare to those found earlier, they cannot be explained by a crowding out of alternative childcare modes. Nonetheless, as the reform was implemented in a period of low labor demand in Spain, our estimates may not be as modest at they appear at first sight.

Do increased availability and reduced cost of early childhood care and education narrow social inequality gaps in utilization? Evidence from Norway

Prior theoretical models and empirical research suggest that specific parent, child, and family factors are related to the utilization of early childhood education and care (ECEC). The political context of Norway provides a unique opportunity to test whether increased availability and affordability of care over time due to policy change reduces the gap between high- and low-socioeconomic status (SES) families in utilizing center-based care compared to other care arrangements. Progressive Norwegian child care policies were also expected to reduce the effect of child and family characteristics that might make a family less likely to enroll their child in center-based care. Using a large sample from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa, n?=?60,270), this research examined selection factors predicting enrollment in center-based ECEC at age 18 months across cohorts from 2002 to 2006. While families with higher parental education and income-to-needs ratios were more likely to enroll their children in center-based care, the progressive universal child care policy did succeed in reducing the utilization gap between the most and least educated families across time. The policy appeared to be protective against the effect of most other factors predictive of ECEC use, but the high number of children was still associated with underutilization.

A difference-in-differences approach to estimate the effect of income-supplementation on food insecurity

ObjectiveThe Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) is a 2006 Canadian federal policy of income supplementation that provides parents with $100 monthly in Canadian dollars for each child aged <6years. The study main objective was to estimate the causal effect of UCCB on self-reported food insecurity overall and in vulnerable subgroups. MethodThe Canadian Community Health Survey (2001–2009) was used to conduct a difference-in-differences (DID) regression analysis for the effect of the UCCB on self-reported food insecurity. Respondents were ages ≥12 in families with at least one child aged <6years (UCCB-eligible, n=22,737) or a child aged 6–11 but no child <6years (control group, n=17,664). ResultsOver the study period 16.3% of respondents experienced some level of food insecurity. Overall, UCCB reduced the proportion of respondents reporting food insecurity by 2.4% (95% CI: −4.0%, −0.9%). There was a significantly stronger impact on food insecurity for respondents from households with yearly income below the population median (−4.3%, 95% CI: −7.2%, −1.4%) and respondents from single parent families (−5.4%, 95% CI: −10.3%, −0.6%). ConclusionWe found that a relatively small monthly income supplementation results in a significant reduction in food insecurity at the population level, with larger effects in vulnerable groups.

Can’t buy mommy’s love? Universal childcare and children’s long-term cognitive development

What happens to children’s long-run cognitive development when introducing universal high-quality childcare for 3-year-olds mainly crowds out family care? To answer this question, we take advantage of a sizeable expansion of publicly subsidized full-time high-quality childcare for 3-year-olds in Spain in the early 1990s. Identification relies on variation in the initial speed of the expansion of childcare slots across states. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find strong evidence for sizeable improvements in children’s reading skills at age 15 (0.15 standard deviation) and weak evidence for a reduction in grade retentions during primary school (2.5 percentage points). The effects are driven by girls and disadvantaged children.

Out of time

Out of time

Is universal child care leveling the playing field?

We assess the case for universal child care programs in the context of a Norwegian reform which led to a large-scale expansion of subsidized child care. We use non-linear difference-in-differences methods to estimate the quantile treatment effects of the reform. We find that the effects of the child care expansion were positive in the lower and middle parts of the earnings distribution of exposed children as adults, and negative in the uppermost part. We complement this analysis with local linear regressions of the child care effects by family income. We find that most of the gains in earnings associated with the universal child care program relate to children of low income parents, whereas upper-class children actually experience a loss in earnings. In line with the differential effects by family income, we estimate that the universal child care program substantially increased intergenerational income mobility. To interpret the estimated heterogeneity in child care effects, we examine the mediating role of educational attainment and cognitive test scores, and show that our estimates are consistent with a simple model where parents make a tradeoff between current family consumption and investment in children. Taken together, our findings could have important implications for the policy debate over universal child care programs, suggesting that the benefits of providing subsidized child care to middle and upper-class children are unlikely to exceed the costs. Our study also points to the importance of universal child care programs in explaining differences in earnings inequality and income mobility across countries and over time.

Do the Perils of Universal Childcare Depend on the Child's Age?

The rising participation of women in paid work has not only heightened demand for universal early education and care programs but also led to increased use of child care amongst children at earlier ages. Prior research investigating Quebec’s universal highly

Universal Child Care, Maternal Employment, and Children’s Long-Run Outcomes: Evidence from the US Lanham Act of 1940

This paper analyzes the US Lanham Act of 1940, a heavily subsidized and universal child care program administered during World War II. I first estimate its impact on maternal employment using a triple-differences model. I find that employment increased substantially following the introduction of the program. I then study children’s long-run labor market outcomes. Using Census data from 1970 to 1990, I assess well-being in a life-cycle framework by tracking cohorts of treated individuals throughout their prime working years. Results from difference-in-differences models suggest the program had persistent positive effects, with the largest benefits accruing to the most economically disadvantaged adults.

Children of a (Policy) Revolution: The Introduction of Universal Child Care and Its Effect on Fertility

What role does affordable and widely available public child care play for fertility? We exploit a major German reform generating large temporal and spatial variation in child care coverage for children under the age of three. Our precise and robust estimates on birth register data reveal that increases in public child care have significant positive effects on fertility. The fertility effects are more pronounced at the intensive than at the extensive margin, and are not driven by tempo effects or selective migration. Our findings inform policy makers concerned about suboptimally low fertility by suggesting that universal early child care holds the promise of being an effective means of increasing birth rates.

Universal Child Care, Maternal Employment, and Children's Long-Run Outcomes: Evidence from the U.S. Lanham Act of 1940

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the Lanham Act of 1940, a heavily-subsidized and universal child care program that was administered throughout the U.S. during World War II. I begin by estimating the impact of the Lanham Act on maternal employment using 1940 and 1950 Census data in a difference-in-difference-in-differences framework. The evidence suggests that mothers' paid work increased substantially following the introduction of the child care program. I then study the implications of the Lanham Act for children's long-run outcomes related to educational attainment, family formation, and labor market participation. Using Census data from 1970 to 1990, I assess well-being in a lifecycle framework by tracking cohorts of treated individuals throughout their prime working years. Results from difference-in-differences models suggest that the Lanham Act had strong and persistent positive effects on well-being, equivalent to a 0.36 standard deviation increase in a summary index of adult outcomes. In addition, a supplementary analysis of distributional effects shows that the benefits of the Lanham Act accrued largely to the most economically disadvantaged adults. Together, these findings shed light on the design of contemporary child care systems that balance the twin goals of increasing parental employment and enhancing child well-being.

New Evidence on the Impacts of Access to and Attending Universal Child-Care in Canada

In Canada, advocates of universal child-care often point to policies implemented in Quebec as providing a model for early education and care policies in other provinces. While these policies have proven to be highly popular among citizens, initial evaluations of access to these programs indicated they led to a multitude of undesirable child developmental, health, and family outcomes. These research findings ignited substantial controversy and criticism. In this study, we show the robustness of the initial analyses to 1) concerns over whether negative outcomes would vanish over time as suppliers gained experience providing child-care; 2)concerns regarding multiple testing; and 3) concerns that the original estimates measured the causal impact of child-care availability and not child-care attendance. A notable exception is that despite estimated effects stemming from the policy indicating declines in motor-social development scores in Quebec relative to the rest of Canada, our analyses imply that on average attending child-care in Canada leads to a significant increase in this test score. However, our analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity in program impacts that occur in response to the Quebec policies and indicates that most of the negative impacts reported in earlier research are driven by children from families who only attended child-care in response to the implementation of this policy.

Can't Buy Mommy's Love? Universal Childcare and Children's Long-Term Cognitive Development

What happens to children’s long-run cognitive development when introducing universal high-quality childcare for 3-year olds mainly crowds out maternal care? To answer this question we exploit a natural experiment framework and employ a difference-in-difference approach. We find sizable improvements in children’s reading and math skills at age 15, as well as in grade progression during primary and secondary school. Effects are driven by girls and disadvantaged children.

Artist's statement

1972. A new mother lives in a communal household. The group thinks that the state will wither away, capitalism too. When the group asks the mother to wean her baby, the better to share equally the responsibility of childrearing, the mother cries. The mother does not want to wean her child. The mother wants to be the primary caregiver. For the mother, this is the moment when the psychoanalytic enters the discourse, no Marx without Freud, no Lacan without Kristeva: in the new world, universal childcare will be necessary but not sufficient. The mother is Mary Kelly, the artist whose early career would cohere around soiled diapers, and whose practice has always been profoundly on the side of the maternal.

Reliving the History of Compensatory Education: Policy Choices, Bureaucracy, and the Politicized Role of Science in the Evolution of Head Start

In this article, Edward Zigler, interviewed by Barbara Beatty, talks about a turning point in the history of Head Start that reveals how policy choices, bureaucracy, and science came together when he was told to phase out the program in 1970. New to Washington, Zigler learned that President Richard M. Nixon's domestic policy advisor Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who had put forth the Family Assistance Plan, favored direct support for mothers and families over compensatory preschool education. Zigler saw how both the methodologically flawed 1969 Westinghouse study on the supposed fadeout of Head Start gains and Arthur Jensen's controversial 1969 article on the supposed failure of compensatory education became politicized and influenced arguments about Head Start's future. With President Nixon's veto of the 1971 Child Development Act, Zigler witnessed how competing policies, bureaucracies, and political ideologies could block support for universal child care and comprehensive services for children and families. After many years of consulting to Head Start and research on applied child development, he sees public schools as sites for coordination of social welfare programs that can improve access to high-quality health care, education, child care, and family services, as in his Schools for the 21st Century model.

Can't Buy Mommy's Love? Universal Childcare and Children's Long-Term Cognitive Development

What happens to children's long-run cognitive development when introducing universal high-quality childcare for 3-year olds mainly crowds out maternal care? To answer this question we exploit a natural experiment framework and employ a difference-in-difference approach. We find sizable improvements in children's reading and math skills at age 15, as well as in grade progression during primary and secondary school. Effects are driven by girls and disadvantaged children.

Is Universal Child Care Leveling the Playing Field?

Many developed countries currently consider a move towards a universal child care program. The challenge in assessing the case for universal child care programs is that the evidence base is scarce. We analyze the staged expansion of subsidized, universally accessible child care in Norway. Our approach differs from existing literature which estimate mean impacts of universal child care programs; in contrast, we use non-linear difference-in-differences methods to estimate quantile treatment effects, showing how the child care expansion affected the earnings distribution of exposed children as adults. We complement these estimates with local linear regressions of the child care effects by family income. Our findings suggest that the effects of child care vary systematically across the earnings distribution, that the mean impact misses a lot, and that children of low income parents seem to be the primary beneficiaries of subsidized child care. These findings are important when considering the case for universal child care programs, since the benefits of providing subsidized child care to middle and upper-class children are unlikely to exceed the costs. To help understand the differential effects on earnings, we examine how the child care expansion affected the educational trajectories and cognitive test scores of the exposed children.

Does universally accessible child care protect children from late talking? Results from a Norwegian population-based prospective study

This study examines the association between type of child care arrangement at age 1, 1.5 and 3 years and late talking (LT). The data were from 19,919 children in the population-based prospective Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and included information about child care arrangement, LT and a variety of covariates. Attendance at universally accessible child care at 1.5 and 3 years of age was related to a reduced risk for LT, even after controlling for covariates, including early social communication skills before entering child care. However, type of child care at one year of age did not predict LT. Children attending centre care full-time at age three years showed less LT than children attending centre care part-time, whereas no such relationship was found for children at age 1.5 years or for children attending family day care. The results indicate that high-quality universal child care protects children from LT.

Money for nothing? Universal child care and maternal employment

The strong correlation between child care and maternal employment rates has led previous research to conclude that affordable and readily available child care is a driving force both of cross-country differences in maternal employment and of its rapid growth over the last decades. We analyze a staged expansion of subsidized child care in Norway. Our precise and robust difference-in-differences estimates reveal that there is little, if any, causal effect of subsidized child care on maternal employment, despite a strong correlation. Instead of increasing mothers' labor supply, the new subsidized child care mostly crowds out informal child care arrangements, suggesting a significant net cost of the child care subsidies.