Abstract
State child care subsidy programs are intended to support the employment of low-income parents, particularly for families receiving or likely to receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. To study the impact of child care subsidies on employment, this study used detailed data from a survey of low-income parents in Minnesota, linked with administrative data on subsidy receipt, to estimate endogenous switching models of subsidy receipt and parent work status. Parental preferences about the child development-related characteristics of child care settings were the basis for an instrumental variable used to predict subsidy receipt. Receiving a subsidy significantly increased the probability of employment and especially of full-time employment. The findings suggest that expansion of the child care subsidy program could lead to increased employment among low-income parents with young children.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 662-682 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Journal of Family and Economic Issues |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 1 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding for this research was provided through Grants #90YE098 and #90YE0132 from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services. The contents and conclusions are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, the Administration for Children and Families, or the US Department of Health and Human Services. The sponsors had no role in the collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, nor in the decision to submit the article for publication. The survey design and data collection were part of a larger research project led by Kathryn Tout at Child Trends. Davis also acknowledges the support of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Multistate Project NE-1049 and Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station Project MIN-14-081. The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.
Funding Information:
5 The Minnesota Child Care Choices study was conducted by Child Trends and the University of Minnesota with funding from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Keywords
- Child care
- Child care subsidies
- Employment
- Endogenous switching model
- Instrumental variables
- Work support
