Regulation and the cost of childcare

Authors

Devon Haskell Gorry, Utah State UniversityFollow
Diana W. Thomas, Utah State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Applied Economics

Publisher

Routledge

Publication Date

2017

First Page

1

Last Page

10

Abstract

Female labour market choices depend on the availability, affordability and quality of childcare. In this article, we evaluate different regulatory measures and their effect on both the quality and the cost of childcare. First, we analyse data on regulations and costs to estimate the effect of regulatory measures on the cost of childcare. Next, we summarize the existing literature on the effect of regulation on childcare quality. We find that regulation intended to improve quality often focuses on easily observable measures of the care environment that do not necessarily affect the quality of care but that do increase the cost. Thus, we find that the regulatory environment could be improved by eliminating costly measures that do not affect quality of care.

Recommended Citation

Gorry, Devon Haskell and Thomas, Diana W., "Regulation and the cost of childcare" (2017). Economics and Finance Faculty Publications. Paper 934.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/econ_facpubs/934