Childcare Subsidies and Maternal Labor Supply: A Field Experiment

Last registered on September 24, 2024

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Childcare Subsidies and Maternal Labor Supply: A Field Experiment

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0013838

Initial registration date

June 27, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

July 01, 2024, 12:13 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

September 24, 2024, 5:53 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Ana Costa-Ramon

Affiliation

University of Zurich

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Michaela Slotwinski

PI Affiliation

University of Zurich

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Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2024-06-28

End date

2026-06-30

Keywords

Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

The research goal of this study is to understand whether families are informed about changes to family policies, or whether there are informational gaps that prevent families from fully accounting for these changes in their decision-making. In particular, we want to answer the following research questions: Are mothers informed about family policy changes and the consequences for their household? Are they reconsidering their labor supply choices when a childcare subsidy is introduced? Can personalized and easily accessible information about the policy change influence childcare take-up and maternal labor supply?

We study these questions in the context of the implementation of a reform that substantially increases childcare subsidies in one region of Switzerland. We implement a field experiment that provides concrete and individualized information to families about the reduction in childcare costs for their household. We further highlight, that this reform might allow to reconsider the current household organization and provide them with calculations of cost changes in the case of employment level increases. We then measure the impact of this intervention on mothers’ labor supply plans, their actual labor supply, and childcare take-up, among other outcomes.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Costa-Ramon, Ana and Michaela Slotwinski. 2024. "Childcare Subsidies and Maternal Labor Supply: A Field Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. September 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13838-2.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Our intervention will use publicly available information on the level of childcare subsidies implemented by the reform, but will present it in a more comprehensive manner by predicting participants’ effective child-care costs after the reform.

The reform decreases parental care contributions for all income groups, increases the maximum subsidy provided by the government (which mostly benefits low- and middle-income households), and introduces a maximum parental contribution (which benefits high income families). Eligibility requires that parents are working, seeking work, or obtaining education/training, and these criteria remain unchanged by the policy. Due to the different changes introduced, the effective decrease in childcare costs depends on income, number of household members, and use of childcare.

We designed a calculator that takes these inputs and predicts the change in child-care costs after the reform. We will provide participants with simplified information about the total reduction in childcare costs and the implied change in childcare costs for an additional employment day. We also highlight that this reform provides an opportunity for families to reconsider their employment level and childcare arrangements. This information is provided after the baseline survey online. Participants in the treatment condition also receive this information via email after the survey, or can print it to their device if they do not provide their email.

We adapt the treatment content to make it meaningful to each participant's individual situation. Specifically, if a household does not qualify for subsidies at baseline, we include hypothetical calculations for the minimum employment level or childcare use that would make them eligible and use this scenario to show the reduction in childcare costs implied by the policy. If a household already qualifies at baseline, we show them the changes in childcare costs for their current situation. Additionally, for all participants for whom this is possible, we show the change in childcare costs they would incur if they increased their employment level by one day.

The control group does not receive any type of information.

Intervention Start Date

2024-06-28

Intervention End Date

2024-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

1) Beliefs about childcare costs
2) Interest in information about childcare costs, willingness to make adjustments and policy awareness
3) Childcare use
4) Maternal labor supply/maternal earnings

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

As secondary outcomes, we also collect information on whether mothers plan to talk about the study with their partner/social network and on satisfaction with family policies.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We randomize participants who enter the study (and fill in all needed baseline information for the calculations) into treatment and control at the individual level.

We stratify the randomization based on the following characteristics of participants: by prior childcare usage [yes,no], prior childcare subsidy enrollment [yes,no], awareness of policy [monthly childcare cost estimate <1400, monthly childcare cost estimate 1400-1800, monthly childcare cost estimate>1800], wanting to increase employment level [yes/no], special cases in treatment [either partner is students, or in education, or social welfare recipient, or unemployed, 0 otherwise]

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization done by computer (Qualtrics)

Randomization Unit

Individual level

Was the treatment clustered?