2024/11/20 by Henning Hermes, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter +1 · 2 voices · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Health Professions · #Early Childhood Education and Development #Child and Adolescent Health #Work-Family Balance Challenges
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/jeea/jvae054
Abstract Why are children with lower socioeconomic status (SES) substantially less likely to be enrolled in child care? We study whether barriers in the application process work against lower-SES children—the group known to benefit strongest from child care enrollment. In an RCT in Germany with highly subsidized child care (N=607), we offer treated families information and personal assistance for applications. We find substantial, equity-enhancing effects of the treatment, closing half of the large SES gap in child care enrollment. Increased enrollment for lower-SES families is likely driven by altered application knowledge and behavior. We discuss scalability of our intervention and derive policy implications for the design of universal child care programs. (JEL: I21, J13, J18, J24, C93)