PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Fitzpatrick, Maria Donovan
TI  - Revising Our Thinking About the Relationship Between Maternal Labor Supply and Preschool
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.47.3.583
DP  - 2012 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 583--612
VI  - 47
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/47/3/583.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/47/3/583.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2012 Jul 01; 47
AB  - Many argue that childcare costs limit the labor supply of mothers, though existing evidence has been mixed. Using a child’s eligibility for public kindergarten in a regression discontinuity instrumental variables framework, I estimate how use of a particular subsidy, public school, affects maternal labor supply. I find public school enrollment increases only the employment of single mothers without additional young children. I compare this result to previous work, focusing on striking increases in a similar setting but earlier period (Gelabch 2002). Differences in the population of mothers, labor supply, and patterns of lifecycle events likely drive the discrepancy in results.