Information Asymmetries between Parents and Educators in German Childcare Institutions

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research at DIW BerlinThis series presents research findings based either directly on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel study (SOEP) or using SOEP data as part of an internationally comparable data set (e.g. CNEF, ECHP, LIS, LWS, CHER/PACO). SOEP is a truly multidisciplinary household panel study covering a wide range of social and behavioral sciences: economics, sociology, psychology, survey methodology, econometrics and applied statistics, educational science, political science, public health, behavioral genetics, demography, geography, and sport science.The decision to publish a submission in SOEPpapers is made by a board of editors chosen by the DIW Berlin to represent the wide range of disciplines covered by SOEP. There is no external referee process and papers are either accepted or rejected without revision. Papers appear in this series as works in progress and may also appear elsewhere. They often represent preliminary studies and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be requested from the author directly.Any opinions expressed in this series are those of the author(s) and not those of DIW Berlin.Research disseminated by DIW Berlin may include views on public policy issues, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. choose which ECEC center they would like their children to attend. To choose high quality ECEC, parents need to be able to assess and monitor the quality of these services. As parents can visit their children's ECEC centers on a daily basis, they are assumed to be able to monitor quality and take action if they are not satisfied. Furthermore, parents are expected to act as advocates of their children, ensuring that their early care and education experiences are adequate. ECEC professionals, including the center director and pedagogic staff, provide another perspective on ECEC center quality. Their assessments are important in enabling continuous internal monitoring of quality. Yet, parental assessments of the quality of a given classroom may well diverge from evaluations by the ECEC professionals. Differences in assessments between buyers and sellers of human services -in this case early childhood education and care -can be conceptualized as information asymmetries. Such asymmetries are likely to arise because these services are ...