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Exploring the Impacts of Public Childcare on Mothers and Children in Italy: Does Rationing Play a Role?

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  • Brilli, Ylenia

    (University of Verona)

  • Del Boca, Daniela

    (University of Turin)

  • Pronzato, Chiara D.

    (University of Turin)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of public childcare availability in Italy on mothers' working status and children's scholastic achievements. We use a newly available dataset containing individual standardized test scores of pupils attending second grade of primary school in 2008-09 in conjunction with data on public childcare availability. Public childcare coverage in Italy is scarce (12.7 percent versus the OECD average of 30 percent) and the service is “rationed”: each municipality allocates the available slots according to eligibility criteria. We contribute to the existing literature taking into account rationing in public childcare access and the functioning of the childcare market. Our estimates indicate that childcare availability has positive and significant effects on both mothers' working status and children's language test scores. The effects are stronger when the degree of rationing is high and for low educated mothers and children living in lower income areas of the country.

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  • Brilli, Ylenia & Del Boca, Daniela & Pronzato, Chiara D., 2011. "Exploring the Impacts of Public Childcare on Mothers and Children in Italy: Does Rationing Play a Role?," IZA Discussion Papers 5918, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5918
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    Cited by:

    1. Manuel Reverberi & Andrea Trapani, 2016. "The child care system in Emilia-Romagna," Center for the Analysis of Public Policies (CAPP) 0141, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    2. Bruno Arpino & Chiara D. Pronzato & Lara P. Tavares, 2012. "Mothers’ labour market participation: Do grandparents make it easier?," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 277, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    3. Flavia Coda Moscarola & Riccardo Calcagno & Elsa Fornero, 2017. "oo busy to stay at work. How willing are Italian workers “to pay†for earlier retirement?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(3), pages 1694-1707.
    4. Galasso, Vincenzo & Profeta, Paola & Billari, Francesco & Pronzato, Chiara, 2013. "The Difficult Case of Persuading Women: Experimental Evidence from Childcare," CEPR Discussion Papers 9682, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Peter, Frauke H. & Schober, Pia S. & Spiess, Katharina C., 2016. "Early Birds in Day Care: The Social Gradient in Starting Day Care and Children’s Non-cognitive Skills," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 62(4), pages 725-751.
    6. Bauchmüller R., 2013. "Centre-based versus home-based childcare," MERIT Working Papers 2013-026, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Daniela Del Boca, 2015. "The impact of child care costs and availability on mothers’ labor supply," ImPRovE Working Papers 15/04, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    8. Vanleenhove, Pieter, 2013. "Full childcare coverage: higher maternal labour supply and childcare usage?," EUROMOD Working Papers EM19/13, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    9. Daniela Del Boca & Chiara Pronzato & Giuseppe Sorrenti, 2016. "When Rationing Plays a Role: Selection Criteria in the Italian Early Childcare System," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 62(4), pages 752-775.
    10. Maximilian Bach & Josefine Koebe & Frauke H. Peter, 2019. "Long Run Effects of Universal Childcare on Personality Traits," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1815, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Emilia Soldani, 2021. "Public kindergarten, maternal labor supply, and earnings in the longer run: Too little too late?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 35(2), pages 214-263, June.
    12. Taryn W. Morrissey, 2017. "Child care and parent labor force participation: a review of the research literature," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, March.
    13. Giacomo De Giorgi & Marco Paccagnella & Michele Pellizzari, 2013. "Gender complementarities in the labor market," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 183, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. Ylenia Brilli, 2012. "Public and parental investments in children. Evidence from the literature on non-parental child care," CHILD Working Papers Series 6, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    15. Daniela Del Boca & Chiara Monfardini & Cheti Nicoletti, 2012. "Children's and Parents' Time-Use Choices and Cognitive Development during Adolescence," Working Papers 2012-006, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    child cognitive outcomes; female employment; childcare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare

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