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Cost-Effective Public Daycare in a Low-Income Economy Benefits Children and Mothers

Author

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  • Lopez Boo, Florencia
  • Hojman, Andrés

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impacts of a public program that introduced access to part-time childcare centers for children younger than four years of age in poor urban areas in Nicaragua. We explore the effects of this program on several measures of children's and parental outcomes. Our identification strategy exploits the original randomization and the distance to the centers, using Instrumental Variables (IV) and Marginal Treatment Effects (MTE) methods to tackle imperfect compliance with the original treatment assignments. We present a theoretical model to rationalize our IV assumptions. We find a positive impact of 0.35 standard deviations on the personal-social domain of a widely used development test, and an impact of 14 percentage points on mothers' work participation. Our results are robust to different econometric specifications. We also find suggestive evidence that quality greatly matters for the impacts at the child level, but not at the mother level.

Suggested Citation

  • Lopez Boo, Florencia & Hojman, Andrés, 2019. "Cost-Effective Public Daycare in a Low-Income Economy Benefits Children and Mothers," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 9786, Inter-American Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:9786
    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0001849
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    Cited by:

    1. Clemente Pignatti & Alessandro Tondini, 2025. "Children’s Educational Enrollment and Maternal Labor," FBK-IRVAPP Working Papers 2025-01, Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies (IRVAPP), Bruno Kessler Foundation.
    2. Seema Jayachandran, 2021. "Social Norms as a Barrier to Women’s Employment in Developing Countries," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 69(3), pages 576-595, September.
    3. Talamas Marcos, Miguel Ángel, 2023. "Grandmothers and the gender gap in the Mexican labor market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    4. Finlay, Jocelyn E., 2021. "Women’s reproductive health and economic activity: A narrative review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    5. Rita K. Almeida & Mariana Viollaz, 2023. "Women in paid employment: a role for public policies and social norms in Guatemala," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 252-279, July.
    6. Bucheli, Marisa & González, Cecilia, 2024. "Investment in human capital by socioeconomic status in Uruguay," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    7. Cao, Huoqing & Chen, Chaoran & Xi, Xican, 2024. "Home Production and Gender Gap in Structural Change," MPRA Paper 122334, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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