Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics
Working Paper Series,
IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy
No 2019:1: Does childcare improve the health of children with unemployed parents? Evidence from Swedish childcare access reform.
Aino-Maija Aalto (), Eva Mörk (), Anna Sjögren () and Helena Svaleryd ()
Additional contact information
Aino-Maija Aalto: UCLS, Uppsala Universitet, Postal: UCLS, Uppsala Universitet
Eva Mörk: Uppsala universitet, Postal: Uppsala universitet
Anna Sjögren: IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy, Postal: Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy, P O Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Helena Svaleryd: Uppsala universitet, Postal: Uppsala universitet
Abstract: We analyze how access to childcare affects the health outcomes of children with unemployed parents using a reform that increased childcare access in some Swedish municipalities. While we find no effects of childcare access on hospitalization for 2- to 3-year-olds, our results suggest that 4- to 5-year-olds were more likely to be hospitalized due to infections when they first gained access to childcare. Children aged 10 to 11 years who had access to childcare earlier in their childhood, while their parents were unemployed, were less likely to be prescribed medication for respiratory conditions and allergies. Taken together, our results suggest that the immediate health consequences of childcare access for children of unemployed parents are limited. Our findings support previous evidence that the greater exposure to microorganisms induced by childcare attendance may reduce the risk of developing allergies and asthma.
Keywords: Childcare; Child health; Unemployment; Quasi-experiment
53 pages, February 8, 2019
Full text files
wp2019-1-does-childc...employed-parents.pdfFull text
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