Work

Child care availability and first-birth timing in Norway

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: Both sociological and economic theories posit that widely available, high-quality, and affordable child care should have pronatalist effects. Yet to date, the empirical evidence has not consistently supported this hypothesis. We argue that this previous empirical work has been plagued by the inability to control for endogenous placement of day care centers and the possibility that people migrate to take advantage of the availability of child care facilities. Using Norwegian register data and a statistically defensible fixed-effects model, we find strong positive effects of day care availability on the transition to motherhood.

Source: Demography

DOI: 10.1353/dem.2007.0017

Authors: Ronald R. Rindfuss, David Guilkey, S. Philip Morgan, Øystein Kravdal, Karen Benjamin Guzzo

Institutions: East–West Center, Duke University, University of Oslo, University of Pennsylvania

Language: English

Topic: Family Dynamics and Relationships

Subfield: Demography

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funders: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill