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Full-Text Articles in Early Childhood Education

Close To Home? Five Key Facts About Child Care Customer And Worker Commutes, Gabrielle Pepin, Jonathan Borowsky, Elizabeth E. Davis, Aaron Sojourner Jun 2026

Close To Home? Five Key Facts About Child Care Customer And Worker Commutes, Gabrielle Pepin, Jonathan Borowsky, Elizabeth E. Davis, Aaron Sojourner

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Parents often cite location and convenience as important factors in choosing a child care provider. We use data on individual mobility from GPS in cell phones to study commutes to each licensed early childhood care and education (ECE) provider in 14 states separately for center customers, center workers, and customers of home-based child care providers. We document five key facts about ECE customer and worker commutes. One, center customers and workers commute farther than home-based customers to ECE providers. Two, substantial shares of customers and workers commute 10+ miles to their ECE provider. Three, commute distances to ECE providers vary …


Solving Affordability Challenges In Education, Housing And Childcare, Brad J. Hershbein, Michelle Miller-Adams, Brian J. Asquith, Chloe R. Gibbs May 2026

Solving Affordability Challenges In Education, Housing And Childcare, Brad J. Hershbein, Michelle Miller-Adams, Brian J. Asquith, Chloe R. Gibbs

Presentations

These three presentations emphasize that affordability challenges across education, housing, and childcare stem from structural market and policy frictions, and that effective solutions require coordinated public investment, simplified systems, and attention to both supply and demand. The first presentation argues that while college tuition growth has slowed and aid has increased, affordability challenges persist due to complexity, misperceptions, and uneven costs, and it advocates for simple tuition-free programs combined with investments in advising, streamlined pathways, and stronger school-to-work connections. The second presentation highlights a growing housing affordability crisis in the Rust Belt driven by aging housing stock and limited supply, …


Caregiving For Older Adults: How The Child And Dependent Care Credit Could Help, Gabrielle Pepin, Yulya Truskinovsky Apr 2026

Caregiving For Older Adults: How The Child And Dependent Care Credit Could Help, Gabrielle Pepin, Yulya Truskinovsky

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


How To Design A State Child And Dependent Care Tax Credit That Works, Gabrielle Pepin Mar 2026

How To Design A State Child And Dependent Care Tax Credit That Works, Gabrielle Pepin

Reports

High care costs for children and older adults put an increasing strain on American families, often pushing caregivers out of the workforce. While investments in affordable care deliver lasting benefits for families, employers, and the economy, the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) falls short—leaving states well positioned to make a difference. This Policy Blueprint highlights three ways the CDCTC fails families, and three solutions for designing a state tax credit that can help.


More Hours, More Work: Head Start Expansions Boost Maternal Employment, Chloe R. Gibbs, Esra Kose, Maria Rosales Rueda Feb 2026

More Hours, More Work: Head Start Expansions Boost Maternal Employment, Chloe R. Gibbs, Esra Kose, Maria Rosales Rueda

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Women’s employment remains highly sensitive to childcare constraints, making childcare availability a critical lever for supporting mothers’ labor force attachment. We study the effects of expanded full-day programming in Head Start, using the 2016 federal funding initiative that targeted grantees with low full-day enrollment. Linking administrative program data, geo-coded center locations, and household data on employment, we estimate a difference-in-differences design by comparing mothers of young children in treated and untreated areas. The policy increased full-day enrollment by 19 percent and raised single mothers’ employment (1.9%), hours (2.5%), and earnings (6.5%). Results show that extending program duration meaningfully improves maternal …


Early Learning Across Decades: Advances In Measuring Head Start Effectiveness, Chloe R. Gibbs Feb 2026

Early Learning Across Decades: Advances In Measuring Head Start Effectiveness, Chloe R. Gibbs

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The Head Start program, launched in 1965 and targeted to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, remains the largest early childhood care and education (ECE) program in the United States and the only one deployed at the federal level. As such, the Head Start literature spans several decades and now allows for synthesis of findings from different contexts, time periods, and research designs. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the rigorous evidence measuring Head Start’s effects on children, their families, and society. The focus is on how (1) the contrast between program and counterfactual conditions, (2) takeup of the program among …


Economic Outlook Of Battle Creek: Challenges And Opportunities, Iryna V. Lendel, Chloe Wieber, Sevrin Williams, Gerrit Anderson Jan 2026

Economic Outlook Of Battle Creek: Challenges And Opportunities, Iryna V. Lendel, Chloe Wieber, Sevrin Williams, Gerrit Anderson

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

This report by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research examines labor market dynamics in Battle Creek, finding that roughly 75 percent of jobs in the city are held by workers who live outside the city limits, with significant skill mismatches between city residents and local employer needs. This mismatch helps explain persistently low wages, elevated poverty rates, and high reliance on public assistance among city residents despite a strong manufacturing base and growing logistics, food processing, and machining sectors. Limited housing supply, inadequate public transportation, and childcare shortages further restrict residents’ access to employment. The report underscores the urgency …


Short-Run Fiscal Effects Of Expanding Michigan's Preschool Program To Be Universal, Timothy J. Bartik Jul 2025

Short-Run Fiscal Effects Of Expanding Michigan's Preschool Program To Be Universal, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Policy Papers

This policy paper provides some updated estimates of the short-run fiscal effects of expanding Michigan’s state-funded preschool program, the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), to encompass universal access for Michigan’s four-year-olds. This is an update to Policy Paper No. 2025-034, which analyzed the economic and fiscal effects of Michigan’s current GSRP program as compared to the state having no program. The update takes advantage of a high-quality recent study of the economic effects of universal preschool programs in nine states, authored by Jackson, Turner, and Bastian (2025). Using the estimated economic effects of universal preschool from this recent study, …


Short-Run Economic Effects Of Michigan's State-Funded Preschool Programs, Timothy J. Bartik Feb 2025

Short-Run Economic Effects Of Michigan's State-Funded Preschool Programs, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Policy Papers

This policy paper estimates the short-run economic effects of the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Michigan’s state-funded preschool program for 4-year-olds. The paper considers 15year effects on state residents’ per capita incomes due to impacts on employment rates and real wages, as well as cost-savings from free preschool and fiscal benefits due to tax base expansion. These 15-year effects ignore the program’s outcomes for child participants and focus on how the Michigan economy is affected by GSRP’s direct impacts on parents and preschool teachers. The estimates use a regional econometric model of a state’s economy, developed originally to evaluate economic …


What Is The Value Of The Child And Dependent Care Credit?, Gabrielle Pepin Dec 2024

What Is The Value Of The Child And Dependent Care Credit?, Gabrielle Pepin

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The Child and Dependent Care Credit (CDCC) subsidizes child care costs for working families. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 increased the CDCC’s generosity during 2021 only. I find that while the CDCC is of relatively little value in its current form, increases in eligibility rates and conditional benefits under the pandemic expansion increased the credit’s value dramatically. Conditional on CDCC eligibility, higher-income households experienced the largest increases in benefit levels under the expanded CDCC, but lower-income households benefited disproportionately when measuring benefits as a share of income or child care spending.


Effects Of Child Care Vouchers On Price, Quantity, And Provider Turnover In Private Care Markets, Won Fy Lee, Aaron Sojourner, Elizabeth E. Davis, Jonathan Borowsky Jan 2024

Effects Of Child Care Vouchers On Price, Quantity, And Provider Turnover In Private Care Markets, Won Fy Lee, Aaron Sojourner, Elizabeth E. Davis, Jonathan Borowsky

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Harnessing changes in funding for a voucher program that subsidizes consumers’ use of child care services at private providers, this study quantifies effects on local markets’ service capacity and prices. We also estimate how increased funding effects provider entry rate, exit rate, and highly rated provider market share. The evidence shows that an additional $100 in private voucher funding per local young child would 1) raise the number of private-provider slots by 0.026 per local young child, 2) raise average prices by $0.56 per week, mainly driven by a price increase among incumbent providers, and 3) induce new provider entry …


Effects Of Subsidies On The Child Care Market: Large Increases In Capacity, Small Increases In Price, Won Fy Lee, Aaron Sojourner, Elizabeth E. Davis, Jonathan Borowsky Jan 2024

Effects Of Subsidies On The Child Care Market: Large Increases In Capacity, Small Increases In Price, Won Fy Lee, Aaron Sojourner, Elizabeth E. Davis, Jonathan Borowsky

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


Gender Gaps In Employment And Earnings After Job Loss, Ria Ivandić, Anne Sophie Lassen Nov 2023

Gender Gaps In Employment And Earnings After Job Loss, Ria Ivandić, Anne Sophie Lassen

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Gender Gaps From Labor Market Shocks, Ria Ivandić, Anne Sophie Lassen Aug 2023

Gender Gaps From Labor Market Shocks, Ria Ivandić, Anne Sophie Lassen

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Job loss leads to persistent adverse labor market outcomes, but assessments of gender differences in labor market recovery are lacking. We utilize plant closures in Denmark to estimate gender gaps in labor market outcomes and document that women face an increased risk of unemployment and lose a larger share of their earnings in the two years following job displacement. When accounting for observable differences in human Capital across men and women, half of the gender gap in unemployment remains. In a standard decomposition framework, we document that child care imposes an important barrier to women’s labor market recovery regardless of …


Gender Gaps In Employment And Earnings After Job Loss, Ria Ivandić, Anne Sophie Lassen Aug 2023

Gender Gaps In Employment And Earnings After Job Loss, Ria Ivandić, Anne Sophie Lassen

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


The Child And Dependent Care Credit: Unlike Trix, Not Just For Kids, Gabrielle Pepin, Yulya Truskinovsky Mar 2023

The Child And Dependent Care Credit: Unlike Trix, Not Just For Kids, Gabrielle Pepin, Yulya Truskinovsky

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


Not Just For Kids: Child And Dependent Care Credit Benefits For Adult Care, Gabrielle Pepin, Yulya Truskinovsky Mar 2023

Not Just For Kids: Child And Dependent Care Credit Benefits For Adult Care, Gabrielle Pepin, Yulya Truskinovsky

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

As the U.S. population ages, family caregivers face substantial out-of-pocket costs and financial risks while providing the majority of long-term care. The Child and Dependent Care Credit (CDCC), a tax credit based on income and care spending, subsidizes caregiving expenses but has low participation among adult caregivers. This paper evaluates the CDCC’s current structure, documenting its limited impact on reducing caregiving costs and examining reforms to increase its utility for adult caregivers. Simulations of proposed changes—higher benefits, refundability, and relaxed eligibility requirements—demonstrate potential to expand access and enhance support for family caregivers within the existing policy framework.


State Tax Strategies To Reduce Care Costs, Gabrielle Pepin Feb 2023

State Tax Strategies To Reduce Care Costs, Gabrielle Pepin

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


The Economic And Business Case For Ensuring High-Quality Childcare And Preschool, Timothy J. Bartik Mar 2022

The Economic And Business Case For Ensuring High-Quality Childcare And Preschool, Timothy J. Bartik

Presentations

No abstract provided.


Covid-19’S Impacts On The Labor Market In 2020, Brad J. Hershbein, Harry J. Holzer Apr 2021

Covid-19’S Impacts On The Labor Market In 2020, Brad J. Hershbein, Harry J. Holzer

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Making The Child Care Tax Credit Permanently Refundable Could Benefit Low-Income Families, Gabrielle Pepin Apr 2021

Making The Child Care Tax Credit Permanently Refundable Could Benefit Low-Income Families, Gabrielle Pepin

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Making The Child Care Tax Credit Permanently Refundable Could Benefit Low-Income Families, Gabrielle Pepin Mar 2021

Making The Child Care Tax Credit Permanently Refundable Could Benefit Low-Income Families, Gabrielle Pepin

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


How Would A Permanently Refundable Child And Dependent Care Credit Affect Eligibility, Benefits, And Incentives?, Gabrielle Pepin Mar 2021

How Would A Permanently Refundable Child And Dependent Care Credit Affect Eligibility, Benefits, And Incentives?, Gabrielle Pepin

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The federal Child and Dependent Care Credit (CDCC) subsidizes child care costs for working families. Before 2021, the CDCC was nonrefundable, so only families with positive tax liability after other deductions benefited. I estimate how CDCC eligibility, benefits, and marginal tax rates would change if the credit were made permanently refundable, relative to 2020 CDCC parameters set to be restored in 2022. Under refundability, some 5 percent of single parents gain eligibility and receive on average over $1,000 annually. Eligibility increases are largest among Black and Hispanic households. Increases in marginal tax rates among moderate-income taxpayers are small.


Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic And The Cares Act On Earnings And Inequality, Guido Matias Cortes, Eliza C. Forsythe Nov 2020

Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic And The Cares Act On Earnings And Inequality, Guido Matias Cortes, Eliza C. Forsythe

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Tax Credits For Child Care Increase Take-Up And May Help More Mothers Work, Gabrielle Pepin Nov 2020

Tax Credits For Child Care Increase Take-Up And May Help More Mothers Work, Gabrielle Pepin

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Tax Credits For Child Care Increase Take Up And May Help More Mothers Work, Gabrielle Pepin Aug 2020

Tax Credits For Child Care Increase Take Up And May Help More Mothers Work, Gabrielle Pepin

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.


The Effects Of Child Care Subsidies On Paid Child Care Participation And Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence From The Child And Dependent Care Credit, Gabrielle Pepin Aug 2020

The Effects Of Child Care Subsidies On Paid Child Care Participation And Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence From The Child And Dependent Care Credit, Gabrielle Pepin

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The Child and Dependent Care Credit (CDCC), a tax credit based on taxpayers’ income and child care expenses, reduces families’ child care costs. The nonrefundable federal CDCC is available to working families with children younger than 13 years old in all states, and nearly half of states supplement the federal credit with their own child care credits. The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act expanded the federal CDCC in 2003, which led to differential increases in CDCC generosity across states and family sizes. I document CDCC eligibility and expenditures over time and across income and demographic groups. Using data …


The Time Use Of Mothers In The United States At The Beginning Of The 21st Century, Rachel Connelly, Jean Kimmel Jan 2010

The Time Use Of Mothers In The United States At The Beginning Of The 21st Century, Rachel Connelly, Jean Kimmel

Upjohn Press

Connelly and Kimmel focus on the time use of mothers of preteenaged children in the United States from 2003 to 2006. They explore how mothers use their time in order to better understand their lives, the lives of their partners, and the lives of their children.


Women, Work, And Welfare Reform, Kristin S. Seefeldt Apr 2009

Women, Work, And Welfare Reform, Kristin S. Seefeldt

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.


Time Use Of Mothers In The United States: Recent Evidence From The American Time Use Survey, Rachel Connelly, Jean Kimmel Jan 2009

Time Use Of Mothers In The United States: Recent Evidence From The American Time Use Survey, Rachel Connelly, Jean Kimmel

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.