The effect of universal pre‐kindergarten policy on female labor force participation—A synthetic control approach

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of universal prekindergarten (pre-k) on the labor force participation of mothers with pre-k-aged children in Oklahoma and Georgia. I apply the synthetic control method (SCM) to Current Population Survey (CPS) data to identify the causal relationship between universal pre-k and female labor market outcomes. I find that the universal pre-k policy has a positive impact on the intensive margin of the labor supply of mothers with pre-k-aged children in Georgia, which provides full-day child care services for all pre-k programs. However, Oklahoma's universal pre-k policy has little effect on the labor outcomes of mothers with 4-year-old children. The empirical results also suggest that universal pre-k has heterogeneous impacts on subsamples stratified by education level, marital status, poverty status, and the age structure of children in the household.

Free, full‐day programming for four‐year‐old children in Nova Scotia and women's labour market outcomes

“…pre-kindergarten availability on mother's labour market outcomes in Iowa, Florida and Vermont, with estimates suggesting no effect on the extensive margin and reductions along the intensive margin. Because this paper examines an age-specific policy that reduces child care costs to zero and effectively guarantees eligibility, it is closely related to the work of Gelbach (2002), Fitzpatrick (2010Fitzpatrick ( , 2012, Cascio (2009), Cascio and Schanzenbach (2013), Ilin et al (2022), Malik (2018), Li (2020), Soldani (2021) and Sall (2014). These papers examine the impact on mothers' labour supply of eligibility for either preschool or kindergarten in the United States.…”