Research

While the provision of public early childcare for toddlers has been the focus of recent policy reforms, there is still limited empirical evidence on its effects on maternal employment and fertility decisions. This paper addresses this gap by analyzing the effects of Educa3, a Spanish policy implemented between 2008 and 2012 that provided public daycare for children aged from 0 to 2 years. My difference-in-differences estimates suggest that subsidized childcare for children less than 3 years old increased mother’s probability to work in a formal job by 6%. In contrast to other estimates in the literature, mine are not accompanied by a crowding-out effect from private early childcare. In addition, I rule out the possibility of an added worker effect. Despite the positive results on female labor market participation, I find no statistically significant effects on childbearing decisions.

In the early stages of a child’s development, a stimulating home environment is crucial for nurturing both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. However, not all families have access to such resources. Educational programs can serve as a means to bridge this gap. This study investigates the long-term effects of public early childcare on children's cognitive outcomes. Using a difference-in-discontinuities design, we evaluate the impact of a policy that expanded nursery enrollment for children aged 0-2 on Math test scores at the end of primary school. Our findings reveal a modest yet significant positive impact, with an average increase of 0.2 points on a scale of 10-point scale. Boys and non-migrant children from municipalities with higher proportions of migrant households experience the greatest benefits. These results underscore the importance of high-quality early childcare in fostering educational equity and enhancing long-term academic success.

Despite the theoretical evidence on how labor market opportunities would shape married women’s outside options, and their bargaining power within households as a result, this link has received little empirical attention in developed countries. Using both, personal and household data on consumption on a wide range of goods for British families and data from the administrative records of the British Social Security, this paper aims to identify, using a Bartik instrument, the effects of relative changes in labor market opportunities for men and women on both working and non-working women’s decision making power, measured as their relative consumption within spouses. Finally, given new evidences on the caveats of using Bartik instruments for measuring aggregate shocks, I will use as robustness the differential labor demand shocks across British industries caused by China’s admission to the WTO.