Arbeitspapier
Early child care, maternal labor supply, and gender equality: A randomized controlled trial
We provide experimental evidence that enabling access to universal early child care increases maternal labor supply and promotes gender equality among families with lower socioeconomic status (SES). Our intervention offers information and customized help with child care applications, leading to a boost in child care enrollment among lower-SES families. 18 months after the intervention, we find substantial increases in maternal full-time employment (+160%), maternal earnings (+22%), and household income (+10%). Intriguingly, the positive employment effects are not only driven by extended hours at child care centers, but also by an increase in care hours by fathers. Gender equality also benefits more broadly from better access to child care: The treatment improves a gender equality index that combines information on intra-household division of working hours, care hours, and earnings by 40% of a standard deviation, with significant increases in each dimension. For higher-SES families, we consistently observe negligible, insignificant treatment effects.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
-
Series: IWH Discussion Papers ; No. 14/2024
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Field Experiments
Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Demographic Economics: Public Policy
Time Allocation and Labor Supply
- Subject
-
child care
gender equality
maternal employment
randomized controlled trial
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Hermes, Henning
Krauß, Marina
Lergetporer, Philipp
Peter, Frauke
Wiederhold, Simon
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH)
- (where)
-
Halle (Saale)
- (when)
-
2024
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Hermes, Henning
- Krauß, Marina
- Lergetporer, Philipp
- Peter, Frauke
- Wiederhold, Simon
- Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH)
Time of origin
- 2024
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