Paper #1744

Títol:

Preventing child maltreatment: Beneficial side effects of public childcare provision

Autors:

Malte Sandner, Stephan L. Thomsen i Libertad González Luna

Data:

Octubre 2020

Resum:

We investigate the impact of public childcare provision on the incidence of child maltreatment. For identification, we exploit a government reform that expanded early childcare in Germany, generating large temporal and spatial variation in childcare coverage at the county level. Using high-quality administrative data covering all reported cases of child maltreatment in Germany by county and year, our results show that an increase in childcare slots by one percentage point in a county led to a decline of 1.8% in child maltreatment cases. Our findings suggest that the provision of universal public childcare may be more cost-effective that previously thought.

Paraules clau:

child maltreatment, child abuse and neglect, early childcare

Codis JEL:

J13, J12, I38

Àrea de Recerca:

Economia Laboral, Pública, de Desenvolupament i de la Salut

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