Child Care Subsidies, Quality, and Optimal Income Taxation

We study child care subsidies in a Mirrleesian optimal tax framework where parents choose both the quantity and quality of child care. Child care services not only enable parents to work, but also contribute to children’s human capital. We examine the conditions under which child care expenditures should be encouraged or discouraged by the tax system under different assumptions regarding the available policy instruments. Using a quantitative model calibrated to the US economy, we illustrate the possibility that child care expenditures should be taxed rather than subsidized, and we discuss the merits of public provision schemes for child care. (JEL H21, H24, H41, J13)

Prevalence and Characteristics of Home-Based Child Care Providers Serving Children With Provider-Reported Disabilities

This study examines the prevalence of home-based child care providers who report serving at least one child whom they identify as having a disability. Although many families choose home-based child care, researchers know very little about how many home-based providers care for young children with disabilities. Through secondary analysis of the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) data about home-based child care providers, we examined the prevalence and predictors of serving children with provider-reported disabilities among listed and unlisted home-based providers. Descriptive analyses showed that 21.7% of listed providers, 20.5% of unlisted paid providers, and 10.1% of unlisted unpaid providers reported serving at least one child whom they identified as having a disability. These providers reported relatively low rates of connecting families to outside resources and utilizing outside resources to support them in their work with children. Providers who reported higher enrollment and who received child care subsidies were more likely to report serving a child with a disability.

Projected geographic disparities in healthcare worker absenteeism from COVID-19 school closures and the economic feasibility of child care subsidies: a simulation study

ABSTRACTBackgroundSchool closures have been enacted as a measure of mitigation during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It has been shown that school closures could cause absenteeism amongst healthcare workers with dependent children, but there remains a need for spatially granular analyses of the relationship between school closures and healthcare worker absenteeism to inform local community preparedness.MethodsWe provide national- and county-level simulations of school closures and unmet child care needs across the United States. We develop individual simulations using county-level demographic and occupational data, and model school closure effectiveness with age-structured compartmental models. We perform multivariate quasi-Poisson ecological regressions to find associations between unmet child care needs and COVID-19 vulnerability factors.ResultsAt the national level, we estimate the projected rate of unmet child care needs for healthcare worker households to range from 7.5% to 8.6%, and the effectiveness of school closures to range from 3.2% (R0 = 4) to 7.2% (R0 = 2) reduction in fewer ICU beds at peak demand. At the county-level, we find substantial variations of projected unmet child care needs and school closure effects, ranging from 1.9% to 18.3% of healthcare worker households and 5.7% to 8.8% reduction in fewer ICU beds at peak demand (R0 = 2). We find significant positive associations between estimated levels of unmet child care needs and diabetes prevalence, county rurality, and race (p < 0.05). We estimate costs of absenteeism and child care and observe from our models that an estimated 71.1% to 98.8% of counties would find it less expensive to provide child care to all healthcare workers with children than to bear the costs of healthcare worker absenteeism during school closures.ConclusionsSchool closures are projected to reduce peak ICU bed demand, but could disrupt healthcare systems through absenteeism, especially in counties that are already particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Child care subsidies could help circumvent the ostensible tradeoff between school closures and healthcare worker absenteeism.