New Evidence on the Impacts of Access to and Attending Universal Childcare in Canada

35 Pages Posted: 9 Feb 2013 Last revised: 1 May 2022

See all articles by Michael Kottelenberg

Michael Kottelenberg

Queen's University - Department of Economics

Steven F. Lehrer

Queen's University (Canada), Faculty of Arts & Science, Department of Economics, Students; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: February 2013

Abstract

In Canada, advocates of universal child care often point to policies implemented in Quebec as providing a model for early education and care policies in other provinces. While these policies have proven to be incredibly popular among citizens, initial evaluations of access to these programs indicated they led to a multitude of undesirable child developmental, health and family outcomes. These research findings ignited substantial controversy and criticism. In this study, we show the robustness of the initial analyses to i) concerns over whether negative outcomes would vanish over time as suppliers gained experience providing child care, ii) concerns regarding multiple testing, and iii) concerns that the original test measured the causal impact of childcare availability and not child care attendance. A notable exception is that despite estimated effects stemming from the policy indicating declines in motor-social development scores in Quebec relative to the rest of Canada, our analyses imply that on average attending childcare in Canada leads to a significant increase in this test score. However, our analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity in program impacts that occur in response to the Quebec policies and indicates that most of the negative impacts reported in earlier research are driven by children from families who only attended childcare in response to the implementation of this policy.

Suggested Citation

Kottelenberg, Michael and Lehrer, Steven F., New Evidence on the Impacts of Access to and Attending Universal Childcare in Canada (February 2013). NBER Working Paper No. w18785, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2214254

Michael Kottelenberg (Contact Author)

Queen's University - Department of Economics ( email )

99 University Avenue
Kingston K7L 3N6, Ontario
Canada

Steven F. Lehrer

Queen's University (Canada), Faculty of Arts & Science, Department of Economics, Students ( email )

99 University Avenue
Kingston, Ontario
Canada

HOME PAGE: http://econ.queensu.ca/faculty/lehrer/

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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