Child-care policy and the labor supply of mothers with young children: A natural experiment from Canada

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lefebvre, Pierre; Merrigan, Philip
• 署名单位: University of Quebec; University of Quebec Montreal
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/587760
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 519-548
• 关键词: married mothers; UNITED-STATES; EMPLOYMENT; choices; IMPACT; COSTS

摘要

In 1997, the provincial government of Quebec, the second most populous province in Canada, initiated a new child-care policy. Licensed child-care service providers began offering day-care spaces at the reduced fee of $5.00 per day per child for children aged 4. By 2000, the policy applied to all children not in kindergarten. Using annual data (1993-2002) drawn from Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, the results show that the policy had a large and statistically significant impact on the labor supply of mothers with preschool children.