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Can't buy mommy's love? Universal childcare and children's long-term cognitive development

Felfe, Christina ; Nollenberger, Natalia ; Rodríguez-Planas, Núria

In: Journal of Population Economics, 2015, vol. 28, no. 2, p. 393-422

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    Title
    • Can't buy mommy's love? Universal childcare and children's long-term cognitive development
    Author
    • Felfe, Christina. Universität St. Gallen, Varnbüel str. 14, 9000, St. Gallen, Switzerland
    • Nollenberger, Natalia. School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, E1 4NS, London, UK
    • Rodríguez-Planas, Núria. Queens College, CUNY, 65-30 Kissena Blvd, 11367-1597, Queens, NY, USA
    Document Type
    • Postprint
    Language
    • English
    Published in
    • Journal of Population Economics, 2015, vol. 28, no. 2, p. 393-422. Springer Berlin Heidelberg
    Other Version
    OAI-PMH Identifier
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:332776
    Summary
    What happens to children's long-run cognitive development when introducing universal high-quality childcare for 3-year-olds mainly crowds out family care? To answer this question, we take advantage of a sizeable expansion of publicly subsidized full-time high-quality childcare for 3-year-olds in Spain in the early 1990s. Identification relies on variation in the initial speed of the expansion of childcare slots across states. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find strong evidence for sizeable improvements in children's reading skills at age 15 (0.15 standard deviation) and weak evidence for a reduction in grade retentions during primary school (2.5 percentage points). The effects are driven by girls and disadvantaged children.