Abstract
We plan to study the impacts of subsidies access to nursery, employment services, and their combination on mother employment, in the context of a country with very low female labor force participation and conservative gender role norms. We will study impacts on (i) mothers, (ii) children and (iii) on the demand for mothers’ labor among a sample of firms. We are particularly interested to investigate whether subsidies can foster mother’s employment, especially among the poorest mothers who will only take formal childcare up when offered a large discount, and whether the impact of childcare subsidies can be magnified by offering parallel employment services. We will also test whether the intervention has positive impacts on the cognitive development of the children of treated mothers. Finally, we will study whether demand for mothers' labor among local firms increases when they are matched to mothers that receive childcare subsidies, creating a positive feedback loop.