The CHILDCARE¹ project, in partnership with Professor Arnaud Dupuy (CREA, University of Luxembourg), sets out to understand the behaviour of the various stakeholders involved (parents, public authorities, as well as early years education and childcare departments) so that it can analyse the effects of existing policies and suggest alternatives.

The project tries to answer the following questions: Are childcare subsidies effective instruments for improving work-life balance and reducing socioeconomic inequality? How do these policies influence the decisions that parents and childcare providers make?

As more women have entered the workforce in recent decades, it has created a daily need for early years childcare outside the family circle. In many countries, governments have decided to subsidise childcare. This kind of public policy addresses at least two objectives. Firstly, by reducing the financial barriers to work, it helps women find a better balance between their working and family lives, thereby furthering gender equality in the workplace. Secondly, quality childcare can assist in the normal development of young children, which could help reduce future inequality in education.

For the past 15 years or so, public authorities in Luxembourg have made major investments to expand the range of available childcare options², making them more affordable with the introduction of the Childcare Vouchers (Chèque-service accueil) in 2009. This universal service has had the effect of significantly reducing the cost of childcare: on average, families end up covering 25% of the cost, and the State takes care of the rest³.

Despite this broad political consensus, there remains very little scientific knowledge of the role played by the kind of universal childcare programmes found in Luxembourg in particular, and across Europe in general. Indeed, the matters stated above are mainly based on the results of empirical studies of targeted programmes, like those for low income families in the United States. It remains unclear as to whether universal programmes would have the same results, due to differences in the programmes’ scale, content, target population, and institutional context (maternity and paternity leave policies). This lack of data is unfortunate for public decision-makers, given the cost of these policies and their importance to society.