Early childcare costs and labour force participation

About the paper

The paper assesses the relationship between early childcare costs and labour force participation of primary carers.

The analysis builds upon the existing literature by drawing on more recent data, confining the analysis to pre-school age childcare and evaluating the labour force participation decisions of primary carers rather than restricting the analysis to partnered women. The empirical analysis utilises Australian microdata (HILDA) over the period 2009 to 2020.

NSW Treasury has also published a paper on women’s economic opportunities in the NSW labour market and the impact of early childhood education and care.