Universal childcare and long-term effects on child well-being: Evidence from Canada

Arbeitspapier

Starting in 1997, the Canadian province of Quebec implemented a $5 per day universal childcare policy for children aged less than 5 years old. This reform significantly increased mothers' participation in the labor market as well as the proportion of children attending subsidized childcare. In this paper, we evaluate the long-term effects of the policy on child well-being (health, behavior, motor and social development) using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. We follow treated children for more than 9 years and investigate the impact well beyond the first few years of the policy. A nonexperimental evaluation framework based on multiple pre- and posttreatment periods is used to estimate the policy effects. We show that the reform had negative effects on preschool children's well-being, but these effects tend to disappear as the child gets older. We find that this pattern persist even ten years after the implementation of the reform.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Research Group on Human Capital - Working Paper Series ; No. 15-02

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Demographic Economics: Public Policy ; General Welfare; Well-Being ; Education and Research Institutions: General
• Subject: universal childcare ; child well-being ; childcare policy ; natural experiment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Lebihan, Laetitia ; Haeck, Catherine ; Merrigan, Philip
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Université du Québec à Montréal, École des sciences de la gestion (ESG UQAM), Groupe de recherche sur le capital humain (GRCH)
• (where): Montréal
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/209560
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET