Public Childcare, Child Development, and Labor Market Outcomes in Brazil

• In Event: Early Child Development across Two Continents – from Theory to Practice

Proposal

This study tests the impact of publicly provided daycare for children age 0-3 on subsequent child development and household outcomes. The city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil used a lottery to assign children to limited public daycare slots. Winning the lottery translated to one additional semester of daycare center attendance. Incomes for beneficiary households and labor force participation for the primary caregiver were significantly higher in the first year of daycare attendance and four years later. Labor force participation also rose for siblings and grandparents in the household; grandparents were 20 percentage points more likely to be employed four years after enrollment. Beneficiary children had improved height-for-age and weight-for-age, and both of these impacts persisted seven years after enrollment. Children showed cognitive gains four years later but not seven years later. These results suggest an array of positive impacts of publicly provided childcare, not limited to the beneficiary child.

Author

• David K. Evans, Center for Global Development