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Childcare Costs and the Demand for Children - Evidence from a Nationwide Reform

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  • Eva Mörk
  • Anna Sjögren
  • Helena Svaleryd

Abstract

Exploiting the exogenous variation in childcare costs caused by a Swedish childcare reform, we are able to identify the causal effect of childcare costs on fertility in a context in which childcare enrollment is almost universal, user fees are low, and the labor force participation of mothers is very high. Anticipation of a reduction in childcare costs increased the number of first births, but only seemed to affect the timing of second births. We find a negative income effect for families with children already enrolled in child care.

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File URL: http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/page/portal/DocBase_Content/WP/WP-CESifo_Working_Papers/wp-cesifo-2010/wp-cesifo-2010-10/cesifo1_wp3210.pdf
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Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number 3210.

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Date of creation: 2010
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3210
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Keywords: childcare; cost of children; fertility; quasi-experiment; difference-in-differences;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
  • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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  1. Kevin Milligan, 2005. "Subsidizing the Stork: New Evidence on Tax Incentives and Fertility," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(3), pages 539-555, August.
  2. Robert Moffitt, 2005. "Remarks on the analysis of causal relationships in population research," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 42(1), pages 91-108, February.
  3. Lundin, Daniela & Mörk, Eva & Öckert, Björn, 2008. "How far can reduced childcare prices push female labour supply?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 647-659, August.
  4. Mikael Elinder & Henrik Jordahl & Panu Poutvaara, 2008. "Selfish and Prospective. Theory and Evidence of Pocketbook Voting," Discussion Papers 40, Aboa Centre for Economics.
  5. Apps, Patricia & Rees, Ray, 2001. "Fertility, Female Labor Supply and Public Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 409, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  6. Mike Brewer & Anita Ratcliffe & Sarah Smith (Tanner), 2008. "Does welfare reform affect fertility? Evidence from the UK," IFS Working Papers W08/09, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  7. Makoto Hirazawa & Akira Yakita, 2009. "Fertility, child care outside the home, and pay-as-you-go social security," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 565-583, July.
  8. Alma Cohen & Rajeev Dehejia & Dmitri Romanov, 2007. "Do Financial Incentives Affect Fertility?," NBER Working Papers 13700, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Alicia Adsera, 2005. "Vanishing Children: From High Unemployment to Low Fertility in Developed Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 189-193, May.
  10. Jeffrey Smith & Petra Todd, 2003. "Does Matching Overcome Lalonde's Critique of Nonexperimental Estimators?," University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP) Working Papers 20035, University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP).
  11. Ermisch, John F, 1989. "Purchased Child Care, Optimal Family Size and Mother's Employment: Theory and Econometric Analysis," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 2(2), pages 79-102.
  12. Daniela Del Boca, 2002. "The effect of child care and part time opportunities on participation and fertility decisions in Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 15(3), pages 549-573.
  13. Joshua Angrist & Victor Lavy & Analia Schlosser, 2010. "Multiple Experiments for the Causal Link between the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(4), pages 773-824, October.
  14. Melissa Schettini Kearney, 2002. "Is There an Effect of Incremental Welfare Benefits on Fertility Behavior? A Look at the Family Cap," NBER Working Papers 9093, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  15. Alícia Adserà, 2004. "Changing fertility rates in developed countries. The impact of labor market institutions," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 17(1), pages 17-43, February.
  16. Furtado, Delia & Hock, Heinrich, 2008. "Immigrant Labor, Child-Care Services, and the Work-Fertility Trade-Off in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 3506, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  17. David Blau & Philip Robins, 1989. "Fertility, Employment, and Child-Care Costs," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 26(2), pages 287-299, May.
  18. Anders Björklund, 2006. "Does family policy affect fertility?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(1), pages 3-24, February.
  19. Patricia Cortés & José Tessada, 2011. "Low-Skilled Immigration and the Labor Supply of Highly Skilled Women," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 88-123, July.
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Cited by:

  1. Battistin, Erich & De Nadai, Michele & Padula, Mario, 2014. "Roadblocks on the Road to Grandma's House: Fertility Consequences of Delayed Retirement," IZA Discussion Papers 8071, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  2. Stefan Bauernschuster & Timo Hener & Helmut Rainer, 2013. "Does Expanding Public Child Care Encourage Fertility? County-Level Evidence from Germany," Ifo Working Paper Series Ifo Working Paper No. 158, Ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
  3. Daniela Andrén & Thomas Andrén, 2016. "Women’s and men’s responses to in-work benefits: the influence of children," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-24, December.
  4. Arindam Nandi & Ramanan Laxminarayan, 2016. "The unintended effects of cash transfers on fertility: evidence from the Safe Motherhood Scheme in India," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 457-491, April.
  5. Delia Furtado, 2016. "Fertility Responses of High-Skilled Native Women to Immigrant Inflows," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(1), pages 27-53, February.
  6. Alzúa, María Laura & Cruces, Guillermo & Ripani, Laura, 2012. "Welfare Programs and Labor Supply in Developing Countries: Experimental Evidence from Latin America," IZA Discussion Papers 6959, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. Nollenberger, Natalia & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2011. "Child Care, Maternal Employment and Persistence: A Natural Experiment from Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 5888, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  8. Paul, Annemarie, 2015. "After work shopping? Employment effects of a deregulation of shop opening hours in the German retail sector," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 329-353.
  9. Bauernschuster, Stefan & Hener, Timo & Rainer, Helmut, 2013. "Does the Expansion of Public Child Care Increase Birth Rates? Evidence from a Low-Fertility Country," Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79909, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
  10. Peter Bönisch & Walter Hyll, 2015. "Television Role Models and Fertility: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 752, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  11. Stefan Bauernschuster & Anita Fichtl & Timo Hener & Helmut Rainer, 2014. "Kinder einer Politikreform: Führen mehr Krippenplätze zu mehr Kindern?," Ifo Schnelldienst, Ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 67(10), pages 30-37, 05.
  12. Furtado, Delia, 2014. "Can Immigrants Help Women "Have it All"? Immigrant Labor and Women's Joint Fertility and Labor Supply Decisions," IZA Discussion Papers 8614, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  13. Bloom, David E. & Luca, Dara Lee, 2016. "The Global Demography of Aging: Facts, Explanations, Future," IZA Discussion Papers 10163, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

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