Employment effects of childcare availability: Evidence from European Union

Abstract

There are several factors that contribute to the success of a society. Economic and demographic developments are known as important drivers, while the role of parental employment as a key component is sometimes overlooked. This paper focuses on the effects of childcare availability on female and male employment in the European Union regions. Regional differences may be significant, therefore separate panel regression models (with economic and demographic control variables) are established for regions in old and new member states, and the results are compared across different levels of male and female educational attainment. The findings suggest that there is a considerable difference between old and new members states. The availability of early childhood educational development significantly increases employment both for female and male employees with higher education levels in new members states, while this effect is not significant in old member states. For male employees with relatively low education levels, the availability of early childhood educational development does have a significant effect on employment both in old and new member states but this does not hold for female employees with lower education levels.