Preventing Child Maltreatment: Beneficial Side Effects of Public Childcare

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Sandner, Malte; Thomsen, Stephan L.; Gonzalez, Libertad
• 署名单位: Leibniz University Hannover; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Leibniz Association; Zentrum fur Europaische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW); Pompeu Fabra University; Barcelona School of Economics
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueae070
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: domestic violence; physical abuse; CONSEQUENCES; ECONOMICS; neglect; IMPACT; work; program; welfare; men

摘要

We investigate the impact of public childcare provision on the incidence of severe child maltreatment. For identification, we exploit a reform that expanded early childcare in Germany, generating large temporal and spatial variation in childcare coverage at the county level. Using high-quality administrative data covering all reported cases of child maltreatment in Germany by county and year, we find that an increase in childcare slots by one percentage point in a county reduced child maltreatment cases leading to out-of-home placement by about 1%. Our results suggest that the provision of universal public childcare may be more cost effective than previously thought.