Reducing Inequality in Childcare Service Use across European Countries: What (if any) Is the role of Social Spending?

Abstract

Childcare services are increasingly put forward as one of the most important policy levers to combat poverty and inequality. However, higher income families use childcare services to a much larger extent than lower income families. Almost all European countries increased expenditures on childcare over the past years, but has an ever-increasing public spending on childcare provision led to more equality in its use? In this article, the relationship between spending and childcare use as well as between spending and inequality in childcare use over the period 2006-12 is empirically analyzed using a random effects model drawing on country-level panel data (n = 156), derived from the EU-SILC and OECD SOCX databases. Since governments can spend money in different ways, it is discussed whether a public or a market-based strategy to subsidize childcare provision is related to more equality. The results suggest that more spending leads to higher levels of childcare use, but not directly to lower levels of inequality. For achieving equity in childcare use, government investment should lead to an expansion of childcare places across the income distribution. The findings allow the formulation of new hypotheses regarding the role of the private market in childcare services provision.

Unequal benefits – diverging attitudes? Analysing the effects of an unequal expansion of childcare provision on attitudes towards maternal employment across 18 European countries

“…Figure 1 shows the distribution of the 18 European countries included in this study with regard to levels of public spending (upper panels), childcare enrolment (lower panels) and inequality in childcare enrolment, averaged over time (left panels) and as change between both observation periods (right panels). The main message the upper panels in Figure 1 convey is that there is no clear relationship between public spending on childcare and inequality in enrolment, echoing earlier findings by Van Lancker and Ghysels (2016) and Van Lancker (2018). It is true that Denmark and Sweden combine the highest levels of public spending on childcare provision, almost 1.5% of GDP, with close to equal enrolment across income groups, whereas public spending levels are among the lowest in Poland and Ireland, the two countries with by far the highest social inequality in childcare enrolment.…”

Is a positive link between human development and fertility attainable? Insights from the Belgian vanguard case

“…Also in this respect, Belgium provides a well-suited laboratory as the country -similarly to many other Western countries -exhibits a concentration of unemployment and poverty risks in an increasingly select group of low educated women. Social policy struggles to remediate these inequalities (Cantillon & Buysse, 2016;Corluy, 2014;Iversen & Soskice, 2015) and even exacerbates inequality by supporting work-family reconciliation particularly for higher status households (Kil et al, 2017;Marx & Vandelannoote, 2014;Van Lancker, 2017;Van Lancker & Ghysels, 2012).…”

“…In addition, as parental leave entitlements are connected to previous labor force participation in many developed countries, highly educated mothers benefit to a larger extent (Bartova, 2015;Desmet, Glorieux, & Vandeweyer, 2007). Similarly, highly educated groups are represented disproportionately among the beneficiaries of (subsidized) childcare programs (Van Lancker, 2017;Van Lancker & Ghysels, 2012). Explanations for the latter include stronger labor force attachment and higher resources to manage the costs of formal childcare among highly educated women (Gabrielli & Dalla-Zuanna, 2011;Hank & Kreyenfeld, 2003), but also a stronger preference for and supply of informal childcare instead of formal arrangements among lower educated groups (Johansen, Leibowitz, & Waite, 1994;Mamolo, Coppola, & Di Cesare, 2011).…”

“…It has been argued, that these patterns might be related to Belgium's extensive policies supporting the reconciliation of family and career goals, and that especially highly educated people are benefiting from these policies (Klüsener et al, 2013;Van Lancker, 2017). Belgium has over the last decades continuously been one of the top-ranked countries worldwide in formal childcare provision (Gornick, Meyers, & Ross, 1997;Klüsener et al, 2013), and was one of the first countries to be included in a short list of nations that meet the Barcelona target of 33 per cent childcare enrolment for children aged 0-3 (Population Council, 2006).…”

What characteristics of funding, provision and regulation are associated with effective social investment in ECEC in England, France and Germany?

“…Social investment is generally measured using public expenditure (e.g., Van Lancker, 2018). However, we argue that effective social investment in ECEC is dependent on meeting three conditions: availability, affordability and quality of provision.…”