Evaluations of the impact of universal preschool on maternal employment find higher impacts in countries with lower initial levels of female employment, use of private childcare, and welfare benefits. Where policies have encouraged more mothers to work, impacts have often been concentrated among low-income or single mothers whose youngest child is eligible for preschool and have persisted after the child has left preschool. The varied impacts of these policies suggest that subsidizing preschool only for mothers for whom affordability is the main barrier to work may be a more cost-effective way to increase maternal labor supply.
Authors
Associate Director
Sarah is an Associate Director in the Education and Skills sector at the IFS, holding a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.15185/izawol.312
- Publisher
- IZA World of Labor
- Issue
- October 2017
Suggested citation
Cattan, S. (2017). 'Can universal preschool increase the labour supply of mothers?' (2017)
More from IFS
Understand this issue
Retirement is not always a choice that workers can afford to make
6 November 2023
Behind the numbers: reassessing investment in skills and training
12 October 2023
Schools and segregation: a comparison of Scotland and England
10 October 2023
Policy analysis
What you need to know about the new childcare entitlements
28 March 2024
Recent trends in public sector pay
26 March 2024
Gap between higher- and lower-paid public sector workers falls by more than a third since 2007 as doctors and experienced teachers have faced unprecedented pay cuts
26 March 2024
Academic research
Social skills and the individual wage growth of less educated workers
27 March 2024
Household responses to trade shocks
26 March 2024
The consequences of miscarriage on parental investments
22 March 2024