Maternal Employment: The Impact of Triple Rationing in Childcare in Flanders

49 Pages Posted: 8 May 2013

See all articles by Dieter Vandelannoote

Dieter Vandelannoote

University of Antwerp - Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid

Pieter Vanleenhove

KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) - Center for Economic Studies-v

André Decoster

Department of Economics KU Leuven

Joris Ghysels

Maastricht University - Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research (TIER); University of Antwerp

Gerlinde Verbist

University of Antwerp

Date Written: April 19, 2013

Abstract

This paper analyses how maternal labor supply responds to the price and availability of childcare services. It focuses in particular on the childcare market of Flanders, which is characterised by above average childcare use, a wide variety of price schemes and suppliers, and strong government supervision regarding quality.

Variation in prices and the degree of rationing of three types of childcare services at the municipal level are used to identify mothers’ labor supply responses. A discrete labor supply model of the Van Soest (1995) type is elaborated to allow for heterogeneity in prices and to distinguish between rationed and non-rationed households.These extensions rest on rationing probabilities that are estimated separately for informal childcare, formal subsidised childcare and formal non-subsidised childcare using partial observability models (Poirier,1980).

The estimates confirm earlier findings for Germany and Italy, indicating only small price effects and relatively large supply effects. This shows that labor supply incentives of expansion of childcare services are also present in a country which has surpassed the EU target of childcare slots for 33% of children below the age of 3 (Belgium, in contrast with Germany and Italy). Moreover, budgetary simulations suggest the expansion to be beneficial to the exchequer. Rising tax and social security benefits following the increase in labor supply largely exceed the costs of expansion.

Keywords: Labor supply, Childcare, Microsimulation

JEL Classification: C35, H24, J13, J22, D10

Suggested Citation

Vandelannoote, Dieter and Vanleenhove, Pieter and Decoster, André and Ghysels, Joris and Verbist, Gerlinde, Maternal Employment: The Impact of Triple Rationing in Childcare in Flanders (April 19, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2261611 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2261611

Dieter Vandelannoote (Contact Author)

University of Antwerp - Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid ( email )

Belgium

Pieter Vanleenhove

KU Leuven - Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) - Center for Economic Studies-v ( email )

Naamsestraat 69
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium

André Decoster

Department of Economics KU Leuven ( email )

Naamsestraat 69
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.andredecoster.be

Joris Ghysels

Maastricht University - Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research (TIER) ( email )

Postbus 616
Maastricht, 6200MD
Netherlands

University of Antwerp ( email )

Prinsstraat 13
Antwerpen, B-2000
United States

Gerlinde Verbist

University of Antwerp ( email )

Prinsstraat 13
Antwerp, 2000
Belgium

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