The Excess Demand for Subsidized Child Care in Germany

24 Pages Posted: 10 Mar 2005

See all articles by Katharina Wrohlich

Katharina Wrohlich

DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Date Written: March 2005

Abstract

The extension of subsidized child care is currently on top of the political agenda in Germany. In this paper the excess demand for subsidized child care slots is estimated using a partial observability model in the style of Abowd and Farber (1982). The results show that more than 50 percent of children aged 0-3 are queuing for child care slots, whereas only 10 percent of children aged 4-6 years are queuing. For children in the younger age group who have working mothers, about 255,000 child care slots are missing. This number comes close to the government's plan to expand subsidized child care by 230,000 slots.

Keywords: child care, excess demand, partial observability model

JEL Classification: J13, C35, D12

Suggested Citation

Wrohlich, Katharina, The Excess Demand for Subsidized Child Care in Germany (March 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=682461 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.682461

Katharina Wrohlich (Contact Author)

DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research ( email )

Mohrenstraße 58
Berlin, 10117
Germany

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