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Child care, parental labor supply and tax revenue

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  • Eckhoff Andresen, Martin
  • Havnes, Tarjei

Abstract

We study the impact of child care for toddlers on the labor supply of mothers and fathers in Norway. For identification, we exploit the staggered expansion across municipalities following a large child care reform from 2002. Our IV-estimates indicate that child care causes an increase in the labor supply of cohabiting mothers who move towards full time employment. Despite this, average taxes paid on the extra income is low, lending little support to the argument that parts of the cost of child care is offset by increased taxes. Meanwhile, we find no impact for fathers.

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  • Eckhoff Andresen, Martin & Havnes, Tarjei, 2019. "Child care, parental labor supply and tax revenue," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:61:y:2019:i:c:s0927537119300880
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2019.101762
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child care; Female labor supply; Tax revenue; Instrumental variables;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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