Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322934 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
U.S.E. Discussion Papers Series No. 15-08
Publisher: 
Utrecht University, Utrecht School of Economics, Tjalling C. Koopmans Research Institute, Utrecht
Abstract: 
In this article we present quasi-experimental evidence on the relation between child care subsidies and child care quality. We exploit the difference in fund- ing of private and public centers in the Netherlands. A recent subsidy cut reduced funding for private centers while funding for public centers was unaf- fected. The quality measurements are from a panel survey in which centers' quality was evaluated through classroom assessments by trained observers. Using differences-in-differences we find that the subsidy reduction caused a statistically significant decrease in quality of one fifth of a standard deviation. We also present results for nonlinear differences-in-differences estimators. The decline in quality is robust across specifications and appears to be driven by a decline in the middle of the distribution. A limitation of our data set is that our pre-reform period is short, so that we cannot perform pre-reform placebo tests.
Subjects: 
child care subsidies
child care quality
DID
CIC
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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