@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp16915,
            	author={Hermes, Henning and Lergetporer, Philipp and Peter, Frauke and Wiederhold, Simon},
            	title={Application Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment},
            	year={2024},
	month={Apr},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={16915},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp16915},
	abstract={Why are children with lower socioeconomic status (SES) substantially less likely to be enrolled in child care? We study whether barriers in the application process work against lower-SES children — the group known to benefit strongest from child care enrollment. In an RCT in Germany with highly subsidized child care (N = 607), we offer treated families information and personal assistance for applications. We find substantial, equity-enhancing effects of the treatment, closing half of the large SES gap in child care enrollment. Increased enrollment for lower-SES families is likely driven by altered application knowledge and behavior. We discuss scalability of our intervention and derive policy implications for the design of universal child care programs.},
	keywords={randomized controlled trial;information;application barriers;early childhood;child care;educational inequality},
            }