TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Hermes, Henning
AU  - Lergetporer, Philipp
AU  - Peter, Frauke
AU  - Wiederhold, Simon
        TI  - Application Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment
        PY  - 2024/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16915
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp16915
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - randomized controlled trial
KW  - information
KW  - application barriers
KW  - early childhood
KW  - child care
KW  - educational inequality
        ER  -