Inequalities in Spatial Accessibility of Childcare: The Role of Non-profit Providers

Abstract

Equal access to childcare services is a key concern of childcare policy. This article analyses social inequalities in the availability of such services. We explore how observed disparities are related to the socio-economic status of neighbourhoods and investigate how different provider types contribute to such differences. To do so, we use data on all childcare centres in the city of Vienna, Austria, on the spatial distribution of children aged under six and on three measures of neighbourhood status, over a period of eight years. We find that spatial accessibility is highest in neighbourhoods with the highest socio-economic status, that such inequality has increased over time and that both effects can be attributed to the role of non-profits. The results indicate that the policy change undertaken in Vienna towards increased communitarisation – that is, a shift towards non-profit provision – has undermined the universal character of the city’s childcare system.

Barriers to accessing formal childcare services for underprivileged populations: a cognitive approach

“…En appui de cette hypothèse, l'étude de Ünver et al (2018) met en effet en évidence des fortes variations d'accessibilité perçue en fonction des caractéristiques institutionnelles des pays d'Europe. Pour ce qui est de l'offre, les résultats suggèrent par exemple que l'introduction de structures à but lucratif dans le parc de crèches tend à diminuer l'accessibilité perçue et réelle pour les familles défavorisées (Pennerstorfer & Pennerstorfer, 2021;Ünver et al, 2018). En outre, de manière générale, l'accessibilité perçue est plus importante pour les familles défavorisées dans les systèmes intégrés.…”

Identification of Cracking Issues and Process Improvements through Plant Monitoring and Numerical Modelling of Secondary Cooling during Continuous Casting of HSLA Steels

“…10,19,21,[37][38][39][40][41] Others challenged the conventional cooling by implementing the so called "dry casting" concept. [42][43][44] These techniques are aimed to avoid hard cooling (and associated ductility drop), especially for microalloyed steels more susceptible to crack formation. Instead, soft cooling is applied with air-mist, which improves the surface quality of the strand.…”

Preferences, vote choice, and the politics of social investment: Addressing the puzzle of unequal benefits of childcare provision

“…If childcare preferences tend to go along with support for state involvement and redistribution, and if left-wing parties are often the central promotors of expansive social investment reforms, why have recent childcare reforms often failed to address the social upward-bias in childcare enrolment (Van Lancker, 2018)? Across Western countries, more affluent families are overrepresented among the users of childcare because lower-income families are to a disproportionate extent negatively affected by problems of affordability (Abrassart and Bonoli, 2015), availability (Pennerstorfer and Pennerstorfer, 2020), or a combination of factors (Van Lancker and Ghysels, 2016; Lewis and West, 2017). 4 In the following, I argue that the link between preferences and voting is likely to be in itself socially upward biased as well.…”