DO CHILD CARE REGULATIONS AFFECT CHILD CARE AND LABOR MARKETS?

D.M. Blau Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, vol.22, 2003, p.443-465 Economic theory predicts that binding and strictly enforced child care regulations will reduce the supply, raise the price and reduce demand for regulated child care, and as a result will reduce the labour supply of mothers of young children. If regulations are not binding on a large proportion of child care suppliers or if they are not effectively enforced, then there is less reason to expect that they will affect child care and labour markets. The study found that while child care regulations as a group had a significant effect on child care and labour markets, they did not vary enough over time within US states to allow precise identification of individual regulation impacts.  more