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Are Poor Neighborhoods Resource Deprived? A Case Study of Childcare Centers in New York

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  • Mario Luis Small
  • Laura Stark

Abstract

Objective. Many social scientists believe poor mothers are better off in middle‐class than in poor neighborhoods, partly because the latter are deprived of important institutional resources. We test whether poor neighborhoods are more likely to lack one critical institutional resource, the childcare center. Methods. We use geocoded data on all licensed centers in the City of New York, address matched to Census tracts. We estimate logit models of presence of center in tract, testing for the linear and nonlinear effects of tract poverty level after controlling for residential instability, joblessness, ethnic makeup, and other demographic factors. We complement the analysis with documentary, interview, and ethnographic data on centers in one poor and one nonpoor neighborhood in the city. Results. We find (1) that the probability of presence of a childcare center does not decrease as poverty level increases; (2) the relationship depends strongly on funding source, with privately funded centers being less likely and publicly funded ones more likely to be present in poor neighborhoods; and (3) at least two factors affect why poor neighborhoods are more likely to have certain centers, the local state and the (often neglected) nonprofit infrastructure. Conclusions. The findings suggest that poor mothers are not necessarily better off in middle‐class neighborhoods in this respect. The market assumptions underlying the initial hypothesis should be modified. More empirical research on the effect of the nonprofit sector on the prevalence of neighborhood institutions is needed.

Suggested Citation

  • Mario Luis Small & Laura Stark, 2005. "Are Poor Neighborhoods Resource Deprived? A Case Study of Childcare Centers in New York," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(s1), pages 1013-1036, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:86:y:2005:i:s1:p:1013-1036
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00334.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Pennerstorfer, Astrid & Pennerstorfer, Dieter, 2019. "How small are small markets? Local market size for child care services," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 340-355.
    2. Julia Burdick-Will & Jens Ludwig, 2010. "Neighborhood and Community Initiatives," NBER Chapters, in: Targeting Investments in Children: Fighting Poverty When Resources Are Limited, pages 303-321, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Astrid Pennerstorfer & Dieter Pennerstorfer, 2018. "How Small are Small Markets? Location Choice and Geographical Market Size for Child Care Services," Economics working papers 2018-14, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    4. Blumenberg, Evelyn & Wander, Madeline & Yao, Zhiyuan, 2024. "Decisions & distance: The relationship between child care access and child care travel," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    5. János Köllő & Anna Sebők, 2023. "The Aftermaths of Lowering the School Leaving Age – Effects on Roma Youth," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2331, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    6. Snyder, Susan M. & Freisthler, Bridget, 2011. "Are nonprofit density and nonprofit expenditures related to youth deviance?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 51-58, January.
    7. Mario Luis Small, 2007. "Is there such a thing as 'the ghetto’?," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 413-421, December.
    8. Eszter Baranyai, 2023. "The Socio-Economic Status of Neighbourhoods and Access to Early Childhood Education," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(3), pages 1019-1048, June.
    9. Kathryn Freeman Anderson, 2018. "Racial/Ethnic Residential Segregation, the Distribution of Physician’s Offices and Access to Health Care: The Case of Houston, Texas," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-18, July.
    10. Liu, Meirong & Anderson, Steven G., 2012. "Neighborhood effects on working mothers' child care arrangements," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 740-747.
    11. Astrid Pennerstorfer & Dieter Pennerstorfer, 2019. "Inequalities in spatial accessibility of childcare: The role of non-profit providers," Economics working papers 2019-15, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    12. Kunal Y. Sevak & LaKami Baker, 2022. "Need‐resource indicators and nonprofit human services organization density," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(1), pages 129-160, March.
    13. Lam, Marcus & Klein, Sacha & Freisthler, Bridget & Weiss, Robert E., 2013. "Child center closures: Does nonprofit status provide a comparative advantage?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 525-534.
    14. Adam, Emma & Kessler, Ronald & Gennetian, Lisa A. & Duncan, Greg J. & Congdon, William J. & Katz, Lawrence F. & Ludwig, Jens & Sanbonmatsu, Lisa & Yang, Fanghua & Kling, Jeffrey R. & Lindau, Stacy Tes, 2012. "The Long-Term Effects of Moving to Opportunity on Adult Health and Economic Self-Sufficiency," Scholarly Articles 33950780, Harvard University Department of Economics.

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