Child Care Subsidies and Labor Supply in Sweden

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. University of Wisconsin Press and The Board of Regents of the University of WisconsinSystem are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Human Resources. ABSTRACT This paper utilizes data from a Swedish household survey for 1984 (the HUS data) in combination with data on public child care fees and spaces per child by community. We argue that the subsidy rate and availability of spaces determined by the political leaders of the community is to a large extent exogenous to the household. The joint out-of-home child care and labor supply decision is analyzed by logit and ordered probit choice models. We find that the high quality public child care in Sweden encourages labor market activity of women with preschoolers even when the spouse's income is high, and that when spaces are not rationed, a lower price encourages use.

When Fertility is Bargained: Second Births in Denmark and Spain

“…External child care permits shorter interuptions; and paid leaves will compensate for foregone wages and potentially also diminish interruptions (Gustafsson and Stafford, 1992;Gauthier and Hatzius, 1997;Waldfogel, 1998;Stier et al, 2001;Esping-Andersen, 2002;Del Boca et al, 2003). Both may, however, produce ambiguous effects.…”

Workdays, Workhours and Work Schedules: Evidence for the United States and Germany

“…This issue is espe cially important for analyzing the demand for child care and the role of child-care subsidies. A huge literature has examined child care using integral time use data (e.g., Gustafsson and Stafford 1992). Surely, however, much of the difficulty in obtaining child care and using it to ease market activities arises because it is unavailable or expensive at times when the consumer/worker's own value of time in the market is highest.…”

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