June 10, 2013 | News

More child daycare places, more children?

Are birth rates rising when the state ensures that childcare provision is high? © Dr. Nico / photocase.com

Are birth rates rising when the state ensures that childcare provision is high? MPIDR-researcher Sandra Krapf has been looking deeper into this matter. At Rostock’s Eleven, to take place June 13, 2013, she will present some of the results of her PhD work.

The Scandinavian countries are often taken as model when it comes to shaping family policies. Childcare supply is high in these countries, as are birth rates. Can we thus conclude that birth rates are rising when the state provides for comprehensive childcare? In other words, do women opt to have children more so when they know that they have no problems returning to work after birth?

“The studies on that subject do not produce consistent results“, says MPIDR-researcher Sandra Krapf. To give an example: An analysis on Norway has shown a positive relation between childcare provision and the decision to have a child. But for Sweden and Western Germany, this causal relation cannot be confirmed.

The heterogeneous results may be down to various reasons: The data may have been collected using different methods, or the attitudes of people towards institutional childcare and the employment of mothers may play a role. A place at a childcare day facility, for example, may be an attractive option to mothers who want to return to work relatively soon after childbirth. Women who have lower career aspirations, by contrast, may prefer to look after their small child at home. For this group, a high level of childcare provision would have less relevance when it comes to deciding whether or not to have a child.

In her dissertation, Sandra Krapf examines whether women living in a district of high childcare provision are having their first child earlier than women living in regions of low childcare supply.  “In order to find out whether the expansion of child care provision in Germany would indeed have an impact, we would need to dig deeper into the details“, the researcher says. 

About Rostock's Eleven

Rostock's Eleven is a joint initiative of all research institutions in Rostock: eleven young scientists from eleven research institutes in Rostock present the results of their research to young scientific journalists from all over Germany. At the close of the event, the best presentation will receive a price.