1,720,980 research outputs found
Mother's time allocation, childcare and child cognitive development
No full textThis paper analyzes the effects of maternal and non-parental time on a child's cognitive development. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we estimate a model that allows the mother’s time productivity to depend on her education level, and that distinguishes between formal and informal care. The results show that child-care time of high-educated mothers is more productive than that of low-educated mothers and that of non-parental care. The simulation of policies subsidizing mothers’ wages or regulating the non-parental care market indicates that children with low-educated mothers benefit more from replacing maternal time with non-parental time
Public investments in children's human capital : evidence from the literature on non-parental child care
No full textThis paper analyzes the most recent empirical research on social investments in children's human capital, focusing on policies providing non-parental child care. The empirical findings are conceptualized in a theoretical framework showing how policy interventions can shape parents' non-parental child care choices; this framework is also used to discuss the econometric issues arising for the identification of the child care effects. The results from both European and American contributions are presented, taking into account the institutional context where the policy has been implemented and the timing of the intervention. The majority of large-scale policies providing non-parental child care have positive effects on children's cognitive outcomes, both in the short and in the medium run, and on adult outcomes. Results also show that, in countries with scarce availability of public child care services, whether or not child care has an impact on children's development depends on the population at which the service is targeted
CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND COGNITIVE OUTCOMES: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC AND FAMILY INPUTS
No full textLa tesi è una raccolta di tre articoli sugli effetti delle politiche per l’infanzia e le scelte dei genitori circa l’utilizzo dell’asilo nido sullo sviluppo cognitivo dei bambini. Il primo capitolo presenta una rassegna degli studi più recenti sul tema, considerando in particolare le analisi che hanno valutato gli effetti di politiche per l’infanzia e il ruolo della partecipazione pubblica nella gestione del servizio. Il secondo capitolo esplora la relazione tra la disponibilità di asili nido in Italia e i risultati scolastici dei bambini misurati dai test INVALSI relativi all’anno scolastico 2009-10. Il terzo capitolo analizza gli effetti delle scelte materne di lavoro e uso del child care sullo sviluppo cognitivo del bambino tramite la stima di un modello strutturale.This thesis is composed by three chapters, dealing with the effects of policies for young children and parental child care decisions on subsequent child’s cognitive development. The first chapter presents a review of the most recent studies on this topic, considering in particular analyses that focus on public child care policies. The second chapter investigates the relationship between child care coverage in Italy and children’s scholastic achievement, as measured by the INVALSI test scores for the school year 2009-10. The third chapter evaluates the effects of maternal decisions concerning work and external child care use on subsequent child’s cognitive outcomes defining and estimating a behavioral model
Does Increasing Compulsory Education Decrease or Displace Adolescent Crime? New Evidence from Administrative and Victimization Data
No full textThis article estimates the contemporaneous effect of education on adolescent crime by exploiting the implementation a reform that increases the school leaving age in Italy by 1 year. We find that the Reform increases the enrollment rate of all ages but decreases the offending rate of 14-year-olds only, who are the age group explicitly targeted by the Reform. The effect mainly comes from natives males, while females and immigrants are not affected. The Reform does not induce crime displacement in times of the year or of the day when the school is not in session, but it increases violent crimes at school. By using measures of enrollment and crime, as well as data at the aggregate and individual level, this article shows that compulsory education reforms have a crime-reducing effect induced by incapacitation but may also lead to an increase of crimes in school facilities plausibly due to a higher concentration of students. (JEL codes: I28, J13, K42, R10)
Mother’s Time Allocation, Child Care and Child Cognitive Development
Full text linkJEL: D13, J13, J22, C15This paper analyzes the effects of maternal employment and non-parental child care on child cognitive development, taking into account the mother's time allocation between leisure and child-care time. I estimate a behavioral model, in which maternal labor supply, non-parental child care and time allocation decisions are considered to be endogenous choices of the mother, and the child cognitive development depends on maternal and non-parental child care. The results show that the mother's child-care time is more productive than non-parental child care, at any age of the child. This implies that a reduction in a mother's child-care time, induced by a higher labor supply, may not be compensated for by the increase in non-parental child care use, and, hence, may lead to a negative effect on the child's cognitive ability. The estimation of a
counterfactual model where a mother can only allocate her time between child care and work shows that neglecting the mother's time allocation choice between child care and leisure overestimates the productivity of a mother's time with the child
Birth Weight, Neonatal Care, and Infant Mortality: Evidence from Macrosomic Babies
No full textThis study demonstrates that rule-of-thumb health treatment decision-making exists when assigning medical care to macrosomic newborns with an extremely high birth weight and estimates the short-run health return to neonatal care for infants at the high end of the birth weight distribution. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that infants born with a birth weight above 5000 grams have a 2 percentage-point higher probability of admission to a neonatal intensive care unit and a 1 percentage-point higher probability of antibiotics receipt, compared to infants with a birth weight below 5000 grams. We also find that being born above the 5000-gram cutoff has a mortality-reducing effect: infants with a birth weight larger than 5000 grams face a 0.15 percentage-point lower risk of mortality in the first week and a 0.20 percentage-point lower risk of mortality in the first month, compared to their counterparts with a birth weight below 5000 grams. We do not find any evidence of changes in health treatments and mortality at macrosomic cutoffs lower than 5000 grams, which is consistent with the idea that such treatment decisions are guided by the higher expected morbidity and mortality risk associated with infants weighing more than 5000 grams
Influenza vaccination behavior and media reporting of adverse events
No full textWe study the role of media reporting of alleged adverse effects of influenza vaccination on adults' (aged 50 or more) decisions to vaccinate against the flu. We exploit the diffusion of news linking suspected deaths to the vaccine, during the 2014 vaccination campaign in Italy. Using daily variation in news items across the 2014 campaign and the previous year campaign, unaffected by media cases, we show that media reporting decreases flu vaccination by about 2.5 % (78 fewer vaccinations per day). The effect, however, is short-lived, as it fades away after approximately 10 days from the news outbreak
Does child care availability play a role in maternal employment and children’s development? : evidence from Italy
Full text linkPublished online: 12 November 2013This paper investigates the effects of public child care availability in Italy in mothers’ working status and children’s scholastic achievements. We use a newly available dataset containing individual standardized test scores of pupils attending the second grade of primary school in 2009–2010 in conjunction with data on public child care availability. Our estimates indicate a positive and significant effects of child care availability on both mothers’ working status and children’s Language test scores. We find that a percentage change in public child care coverage increases mothers’ probability to work by 1.3 percentage points and children’s Language test scores by 0.85 percent of one standard deviation; we do not find any effect on Math test scores. Moreover, the impact of a percentage change in public child care on mothers’ employment and children’s Language test scores is greater in provinces where child care availability is more limited
Vaccination take-up and health: Evidence from a flu vaccination program for the elderly
Full text linkWe analyze the effects of a vaccination program providing free flu vaccine to individuals aged 65 or more on take-up behavior and hospitalization. Using both administrative and survey data, we implement a regression discontinuity design around the threshold at age 65, and find that the effect of the program on take-up ranges between 70% and 90% of the average vaccination rate for individuals aged less than 65. We show that this effect is not entirely driven by an income channel, but also depends on the expected benefits of vaccination. The results on health outcomes provide suggestive evidence that the program reduces the likelihood of emergency hospitalization
Who cares for the children? Family social position and childcare arrangements in Italy, 2002-2012
No full textThis chapter provides an analysis of how parents’ social position affects the use of childcare below 24 months of age in Italy. Beyond looking at the overall relationship between family social position and childcare arrangements, we also investigate how it has changed over time and across different regions. We thus inspect changes in social inequalities in access to formal childcare in a period of rapid expansion in supply. Also, geographical differences in formal childcare provision in Italy are large, and socio-economic gaps in the use of infant care may vary within the Italian territory. Our analyses produces several observations: first, the prevalent form of childcare in Italy for children less than three years old is still parental care, although the use of formal childcare for very young Italian children has doubled from 2002 to 2012. Also, there has been less reliance on informal care over years. Second, over the period studied, we observed a strong association between parents’ social position and the dominant childcare arrangements: highly educated mothers and fathers in upper level jobs are more likely to rely on external childcare, and, in particular, to use formal care. However, the gap in reliance on parental care between families of higher and lower socio-economic position has shrunk over time, because the latter group is also opting increasingly for external childcare in comparison to the past. Still, a growth in the use of formal childcare over the years was particularly strong among more advantaged families, and this has led to increasing socio-economic differences in participation in the formal infant care. Third, over the whole period, formal childcare has been more widespread in the North-Centre than in the South. However, whereas socio-economic differences in the use of formal childcare have remained quite stable over time in the South, they grew substantially in the North-Centre. Finally, we found that both mother’s education and father’s occupation play a role in explaining socio-economic differences, although mother’s education appears to be more relevant
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