enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database Last updated: 14 August 2013 1 The Impact of Access to Free Childcare on Women's Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Low-income Neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro Author(s) Ricardo Paes de Barros, Pedro Olinto, Trine Lunde, Mirela Caralho Contact polinto@worldbank.org Country Brazil Organizing Theme Economic Opportunities and Access to Assets Status Completed Intervention Category Preschool Sector Children & Youth Abstract The impact evaluation of Rio de Janeiro's public day-care program aims to answer the following three questions. First, how large is the increase in labor force participation of mothers due to the increased access to free child care? Second, what does the increase in labor force participation, if any, suggest about the net cost of the policy (subsidies offered minus new tax revenue collected)? Fourth, does public provision crowd out private provision? Finally, what effect does any change in child care (and associated increases in labor force participation) have on child and family outcomes? GAP funds contributed toward an additional job seeking skills training intervention implemented in half of the sample. The authors find that access to free publicly provided child care services led to a very large increase in the use of care, a considerable increase in mothers’ employment (from 36 to 46 percent), and a almost doubling in the employment of mothers who were not working before the lottery took place. The authors find no statistically significant impact on hours worked for mothers who were employed, however. This rise in mothers’ employment is associated with a modest increase in household incomes of 16 percent (from an average of R$569 to R$661 per month). Finally, the authors also find robust evidence that the public provision of free child care crowds out private provision, even in low income neighborhoods. Therefore, given that the estimated income impacts are smaller than the cost of public provision, direct transfers via vouchers for child care may be more cost effective than subsidized care via public provision. Gender Connection Gender Focused Intervention Gender Outcomes Women's labor force participation IE Design The program was intended to be randomly assigned. However, since assignment was not perfectly random, the authors used Instrumental Variable (IV) approach to estimate the Local Average Treatment Effect. Intervention The Rio de Janeiro Early Childhood Development Program provided center-based interventions including full time daycare, health services, food and instructional toys to children aged 0-3 in low income neighborhoods. Intervention Period The lottery for selection into ECD was carried out in 2007 Sample population Each year, approximately 25,000 families apply for 10,000 slots at Rio center-based daycare. 10,000 children are randomly selected to be enrolled. Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized