Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/180465 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11447
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper studies the effects of day care exposure on behavioral disorders and mental and physical health at various ages during childhood. We draw on a unique set of merged population register data from Sweden over the period 1999-2008. This includes merged information at the individual level from the inpatient and outpatient registers, the population register and the income tax register. The outpatient register contains all ambulatory care contacts including all contacts with physicians and therapists. Visits are recorded by day, and comprehensive diagnoses are recorded for each visit. By exploiting variation in day care exposure by age generated by a major day care policy reform, we estimate cumulative and instantaneous effects on child health at different ages. We find a positive cumulative impact on behavior at primary school ages, in particular for children from low socio-economic status households, and substitution of infections from primary school ages to low ages. All this affects health care utilization and leads to a moderate reduction in health care costs. Results are confirmed by analyses based on a sibling design and on regional and household-specific components of day care fees.
Subjects: 
child care
pre-school
infections
non-cognitive ability
behavioral disorders
illness
education
health registers
day-care fees
JEL: 
I12
J13
J14
C23
C25
C83
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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