Schmitz Sophia
DIW Berlin, Mohrenstrasse 58, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
Eur J Popul. 2019 Apr 29;36(2):171-196. doi: 10.1007/s10680-019-09526-z. eCollection 2020 Apr.
As more and more countries consider expanding public childcare provision, it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of its implications for families. This article adds to the existing literature by investigating the effect of publicly funded childcare on parental subjective well-being. To establish causality, I exploit cut-off rules introduced following the implementation of a legal claim to childcare in Germany. The results suggest that childcare provision strongly increases the life satisfaction of mothers who were previously constrained by the lack of childcare supply. The effect is more pronounced for mothers with higher labour market attachment. The coefficients for fathers are smaller and not statistically significant. As potential mechanisms, a wide range of time-use and labour market outcomes are explored. This shows that mothers indeed shift time from non-market activities to formal work in response to childcare eligibility, resulting in direct and indirect pecuniary and non-pecuniary returns to maternal life satisfaction. The findings shed light on key issues of work-family reconciliation and stress the importance of considering subjective well-being measures in family policy evaluations.
随着越来越多的国家考虑扩大公共托儿服务，全面了解其对家庭的影响非常重要。本文通过研究公共资助托儿服务对父母主观幸福感的影响，为现有文献增添了内容。为了确定因果关系，我利用了德国实施托儿服务法定权利后引入的截止规则。结果表明，托儿服务的提供极大地提高了那些此前因托儿服务供应不足而受限的母亲的生活满意度。对于劳动力市场参与度较高的母亲，这种影响更为明显。父亲的系数较小且无统计学意义。作为潜在机制，我们探索了广泛的时间利用和劳动力市场结果。这表明，母亲们确实会因符合托儿服务资格而将时间从非市场活动转移到正式工作中，从而为母亲的生活满意度带来直接和间接的金钱及非金钱回报。这些发现揭示了工作与家庭协调的关键问题，并强调了在家庭政策评估中考虑主观幸福感指标的重要性。
