The supply of quality in child care centers

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Blau, DM; Mocan, HN
• 署名单位: University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Denver; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/003465302320259484
• 发表日期: 2002-08
• 页码: 483-496
• 关键词: adjusted cost-functions; structural model; demand

摘要

We use data from a sample of child care centers to estimate the relationships between cost and child care quality, and between revenue and quality. We use a measure of child care quality, designed by developmental psychologists, that is positively associated with child development. Taking the estimated cost-quality and revenue-quality relationships as given, we estimate the objective functions of firms and compute the quality supply function. The results indicate that the supply of quality is moderately elastic with respect to price and the wages of child care center workers. Implications of the results for child care policy are discussed.