Effects of early childhood intervention on maternal employment, fertility and well-being

Abstract

"This paper presents the results of a randomized study of a home visiting program implemented in Germany for low-income, first-time mothers. Besides improving child health and development, a major goal of the program is to improve the participants' economic self-sufficiency and family planning. I use administrative data from the German social security system and detailed telephone surveys to examine the effects of the intervention on maternal employment, welfare benefits, household composition, well-being, and fertility behavior. The study reveals that the intervention decreased maternal employment by 9.3 percentage points and increased subsequent births by 6.4 percentage points, in part through a reduction in abortions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Sandner, M. (2019): Effects of early childhood intervention on maternal employment, fertility and well-being. Evidence from a randomized controlled trial. In: Journal of Health Economics, Vol. 63, No. January, p. 159-181. DOI:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.11.003