TY - JOUR

T1 - Preventing Child Maltreatment

T2 - Beneficial Side Effects of Public Childcare

AU - Sandner, Malte

AU - Thomsen, Stephan Lothar

AU - González, Libertad

PY - 2024/6

Y1 - 2024/6

N2 - We investigate the impact of public childcare provision on the incidence of severe child maltreatment. For identification, we exploit a reform that expanded early childcare in Germany, generating large temporal and spatial variation in childcare coverage at the county level. Using high-quality administrative data covering all reported cases of child maltreatment in Germany by county and year, we find that an increase in childcare slots by one percentage point in a county reduced child maltreatment cases leading to out-of-home placement by about 1%. Our results suggest that the provision of universal public childcare may be more cost-effective than previously thought.

AB - We investigate the impact of public childcare provision on the incidence of severe child maltreatment. For identification, we exploit a reform that expanded early childcare in Germany, generating large temporal and spatial variation in childcare coverage at the county level. Using high-quality administrative data covering all reported cases of child maltreatment in Germany by county and year, we find that an increase in childcare slots by one percentage point in a county reduced child maltreatment cases leading to out-of-home placement by about 1%. Our results suggest that the provision of universal public childcare may be more cost-effective than previously thought.

U2 - 10.1093/ej/ueae070

DO - 10.1093/ej/ueae070

M3 - Article

JO - The Economic Journal

JF - The Economic Journal

ER -