IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevef/v18y2026i2p176-200.html

How investments in childcare quality affect centre survival: evidence from Bolivia

Author

Listed:
  • Andrés Hojman
  • Julia Johannsen
  • Sebastian Martinez
  • Cecilia Vidal Fuertes
  • Anastasiya Yarygina

Abstract

This study evaluates a programme that improved caregiver training and infrastructure at locally managed childcare centres in high-poverty areas of Bolivia. In 2012, 170 centres were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. The programme increased centre survival by 46 percentage points in 2018 and 23 percentage points in 2023, with larger effects among the most vulnerable centres and municipalities. It also substantially improved service quality, with surviving treatment centres scoring 1.23 standard deviations higher than controls. Mediation analysis suggests that human-capital investments, rather than infrastructure, drove these effects. The estimated benefit–cost ratio is 2.6, largely due to prevented closures.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrés Hojman & Julia Johannsen & Sebastian Martinez & Cecilia Vidal Fuertes & Anastasiya Yarygina, 2026. "How investments in childcare quality affect centre survival: evidence from Bolivia," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 176-200, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevef:v:18:y:2026:i:2:p:176-200
    DOI: 10.1080/19439342.2026.2666752
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/19439342.2026.2666752
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/19439342.2026.2666752?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jdevef:v:18:y:2026:i:2:p:176-200. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJDE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.