Cascio, Elizabeth U. 2009. “Maternal Labor Supply and the Introduction of Kindergartens into American Public Schools.” Journal of Human Resources 44(1): 140–170.
Since the mid-1960s, many state governments have introduced subsidies for school districts that offer kindergarten. This paper uses the staggered timing and age targeting of these grants to examine how the childcare subsidy implicit in public schooling affects maternal labor supply. Using data from five Censuses, I estimate that four of ten single mothers with no younger children entered the work force with public school enrollment of a five-year-old child. No significant labor supply responses are detected among other mothers with eligible children. Results also indicate that at least one in three marginal public school enrollees would have otherwise attended private school.
Elizabeth U. Cascio is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Dartmouth College, faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor. The author thanks Hilary Hoynes, Ethan Lewis, Ann Huff Stevens, two anonymous referees, and seminar participants at the Second Annual UKCPR Small Grants Conference, the University of California Davis, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago for helpful comments. This research was supported with a grant from the U.K. Center for Poverty Research through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, grant number 5 ASPE417-02. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of the UKCPR or any agency of the Federal government. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning July 2009 through June 2012 from Elizabeth U. Cascio, Department of Economics, Dartmouth College, 6106 Rockefeller Center, Hanover, NH 03755, elizabeth.u.cascio@dartmouth.edu.