The Impacts of Access to Free Childcare on Women’s Labor Market Outcomes and Children’s Development and Health

PIERI-13129 MONGOLIA

10 June, 2018. Bangalore, India

ContentIntroduction

Purpose of Study

Research Methodology

Survey Questionnaire

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Baseline results

Conclusion

Introduction§ Set target to increase employment rate to 60 percent by 2020 § Women's labor force participation is lowest in UB (in 2016,

44%) § Childcare is the third major reason for inactivity (21.7% in

2016) § Demand for public childcare services is high

– Less than half of eligible children are enrolled – Introduced lottery from 2016

§ Childcare service market is expanding and state is the predominant provider – 826 public childcare services (64.1 percent) – 299.5 billion MNT (2015)

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Purpose of study

§ This study aims to evaluate the impacts of the free childcareservices on the variables:

– Children’s development– Children’s health – Women’s employment and earnings

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Research methodology§ This study employs Randomized Control Trial (RCT)§ The intervention will be free childcare services provided by the government of

Mongolia. § Unit of analysis: Households with 2 year old kids registered for public childcare

services Sampling Framework§ 159 kindergartens, which run public lottery, from the six main districts of UB are

selected (19765 applicants; 7729 slots)§ By stratified sampling

– Randomly selected 75 kindergartens – Randomly selected 2 year old children from the selected kindergartens

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Survey Questionnaire

§ Baseline survey questionnaire has 5 main sections

1. Household characteristics2. Participation in household’s decision making 3. Maternal employment and earnings 4. Children’s development 5. Children’s health

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Household Characteristics§ Half of the households live in ger area, average household size is

4.2 and average income is 1148.7 thousand MNT. § 52% of 2 year-old kids are male. § Primary caregivers: – 98% are mothers

– Average age 31– Average education years 13.2 – 93% are either married or living together

§ Household heads are on average 32 years old, 52% are highly educated and employment rate is 80.4%.(LFS 2016: 34; 40%; 73%)

§ Households are heterogenous in terms of household’s dwelling type, main caregiver’s age and education.

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Mothers’ employment and earnings

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§ Employment rate of primary caregivers is 53%.§ Average monthly salary:

– For whole sample: 344.3 thousand MNT. – For employed: 623.3 thousand MNT.

§ Average weekly work hours is 47.8. § 96% of employed receive additional bonus or benefits.§ 60% of mothers were employed before birth.§ Mothers applied for free childcare services are more active and

earn higher income compared to the sample of Labor Force Survey 2016.

§ Employment outcomes are heterogenous in terms of household’s dwelling type, main caregiver’s age and education.

Child Development SDQ

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§ Relatively low proportions of Mongolian 2 year old children are in “close to average” range.

§ The results are comparable to V.Bayarmaa et al. in terms of the “Emotional Problem Score”.

§ In terms of total difficulties score, there are no differences by dwelling type, main caregiver’s age and education.

Child Health

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§ 89% of caregivers answer that their child’s overall health is good (excellent, very good or good). § Among the caregivers who answered their child’s health is

not good: - 56% of them live in a ger area - 44% of them live in an apartment area.

§ Among children of our sample: – 7% were injured in the past 12 months– 13% have chronic diseases

§ Health characteristics of children are heterogenous in terms of household’s dwelling type, main caregiver’s age and education. Especially, birth weight and height, and duration of breastfeeding are different.

Balance test

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Conclusion

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§ Parents who want to send their children to the free childcare centers are more educated and more active in labor market.

§ Children’s behavior is more difficult compared to the norm of the other countries.

§ There are significant differences in household characteristics depending on the age, education level and dwelling type.

§ Treatment and control groups are balanced except for the household’s income. Therefore, we can obtain unbiased estimates for impacts of free childcare services based on the follow-up (expected to be implemented in 2018) survey.