Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/21042
Year of Publication: 
2000
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 198
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In general child care subsidies are widely accepted as a means to create equal chances for mothers in the labour market as well as for children. Although there is a general consensus that the use of child care should be publicly supported, there is no consensus on how this should be done. Moreover, there is little knowledge on the distributional effects of child care subsidies. In order to assess whether public expenditures are targeted efficiently, it is, however, vital to know which social groups profit most from the public expenditures on children?s day care and if taxpayers money is spent effectively. In Germany, as in other European countries, child care subsidies are mainly provided ?in-kind?. Local communities and NPOs provide child care slots for children, which are – except for a small fee - free of charge. In this study we estimate the distributional effects of state funded child day care in Germany using microdata of households and data on the expenditure of public funded child care. Major results are that child care subsidies only carry modest redistributional effects. In the first place, it is the middle income range that profits from the public provision of children?s day care. This contradicts common public policy recommendations, which state that low income families should be the first target of child care subsidies.
Subjects: 
Child day care
child care subsidies
distributional effects
social policy
JEL: 
H2
H4
D1
D3
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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