The Availability of Child Care Centers, Perceived Search Costs and Parental Life Satisfaction

Chikako Yamauchi

No 620, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University

Abstract: The supply of formal childcare has expanded in many developed countries. There is ambiguity, however, in the theory that the entry of care providers increases consumers’ surplus and the welfare of households in a market with differentiated services, such as childcare. This study empirically investigates how perceived search costs and parental life satisfaction change when actual childcare availability is altered. It exploits the new panel data from Australia on the number of center-based childcare places per 100 children within a household’s residential area. The results show that an increase in the availability of centerbased childcare is associated with a decrease in perceived difficulty in finding ‘good quality’ childcare, as well as an improvement in mothers’ satisfaction with the increased availability of free time. These findings imply that the local availability of center-based childcare has enhanced the subjective well-being of parents.

Keywords: child care; entry; search; consumers’ surplus; life satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/CEPR/DP620.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The availability of child care centers, perceived search costs and parental life satisfaction (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:auu:dpaper:620

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