Arbeitspapier

Effects of child care vouchers on price, quantity, and provider turnover in private care markets

Harnessing changes in funding for a voucher program that subsidizes consumers' use of child care services at private providers, this study quantifies effects on local markets' service capacity and prices. We also estimate how increased funding effects provider entry rate, exit rate, and highly rated provider market share. The evidence shows that an additional $100 in private voucher funding per local young child would 1) raise the number of private-provider slots by 0.026 per local young child, 2) raise average prices by $0.56 per week, mainly driven by a price increase among incumbent providers, and 3) induce new provider entry to the market by 0.4 percentage points. The estimates imply a highly elastic supply elasticity of 10.7. Thus an increase in public funding and subsequent increase in demand is expected to result in expansion of available slots accompanied by a limited increase in price.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: Upjohn Institute Working Paper ; No. 24-394

Classification
Wirtschaft
Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
Business Taxes and Subsidies including sales and value-added (VAT)
Publicly Provided Private Goods
Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Time Allocation and Labor Supply
Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
Subject
child care
vouchers
prices
capacity
supply elasticity
entry rate
exit rate

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Lee, Won Fy
Sojourner, Aaron
Davis, Elizabeth E.
Borowsky, Jonathan
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
(where)
Kalamazoo, MI
(when)
2024

DOI
doi:10.17848/wp24-394
Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Lee, Won Fy
  • Sojourner, Aaron
  • Davis, Elizabeth E.
  • Borowsky, Jonathan
  • W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Time of origin

  • 2024

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