Preventing child maltreatment: Beneficial side effects of public childcare provision

Arbeitspapier

We investigate the impact of childcare provision on cases of child maltreatment. For identification, we exploit a governmental reform introducing mandatory early childcare in Germany that generated large temporal and spatial variation in childcare coverage at the county-level. Using high-quality administrative data covering all reported child maltreatment cases in a county per year, our results show that maltreatment cases decline by 1.8% if a county increases childcare slots by one percentage point. Because child maltreatment leads to enormous societal costs, we provide evidence that the provision of universal public childcare can prevent some of these costs.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) ; No. 669

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
• Subject: Child Maltreatment ; Child abuse and neglect ; Early childcare ; Prevention

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Sandner, Malte ; Thomsen, Stephan L.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
• (where): Hannover
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/216969
• Last update: 10.06.2025, 12:42 PM CEST