American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
A Matter of Time? Measuring Effects of Public Schooling Expansions on Families
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
(pp. 94–129)
Abstract
We leverage pronounced changes in the availability of public schooling for young children—through duration expansions to the kindergarten day—to better understand how an implicit childcare subsidy affects mothers and families. Exploiting full-day kindergarten variation across place and time from 1992 through 2022 and novel data on state-level policy changes, combined with a comparison of children of typical kindergarten-age to older children, we measure effects on parental labor supply and family childcare expenses. Full-day kindergarten expansions were responsible for as much as 24 percent of the growth in employment of mothers with kindergarten-age children in this time frame.Citation
Gibbs, Chloe R., Jocelyn Wikle, and Riley Wilson. 2026. "A Matter of Time? Measuring Effects of Public Schooling Expansions on Families." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 18 (4): 94–129. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20240837Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
- I21 Analysis of Education
- J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- J22 Time Allocation and Labor Supply