• AEA in the news
  • May 23, 2016

Regulations Drive Up Cost of Child Care in Maine

Andrey Kuzmin/Bigstock

A column in the Maine Wire cited a 2011 article from the American Economic Review about the complex effects of regulation in the child care sector. In The Impact of Regulations on the Supply and Quality of Care in Child Care Markets, the authors note that many states regulate aspects of child care like the number of children allowed in a facility or the training certification of caregivers that are not necessarily linked to the actual quality or safety of care. They find that more regulations lead some centers to close, especially in low-income areas. On the other hand, the remaining centers tend to get accredited more easily, although these benefits were mostly concentrated in higher-income areas.