Who looks after the kids? the effects of childcare choice on early childhood development in China*

This paper examines whether childcare choice affects the early childhood development of children aged 7–59 months. Using the data from Chinese Family Panel Studies, we look at household choices between parental and grandparental cares and the timing of four key early life achievements – walking, tal...

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Main Authors: Zhang, Jing, Appleton, Simon, Song, Lina, Liu, Bing
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2021
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65126/
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author Zhang, Jing
Appleton, Simon
Song, Lina
Liu, Bing
author_facet Zhang, Jing
Appleton, Simon
Song, Lina
Liu, Bing
author_sort Zhang, Jing
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper examines whether childcare choice affects the early childhood development of children aged 7–59 months. Using the data from Chinese Family Panel Studies, we look at household choices between parental and grandparental cares and the timing of four key early life achievements – walking, talking, counting and toilet training. We conceptualize early childhood development within a household production model, which enables us to identify the impacts of childcare. Our results suggest that compared with parental care, grandparental care delays the achievement of all four outcome measures. Grandparental care is particularly disadvantageous for children who are ‘left-behind’ by migrant parents.
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spelling nottingham-651262021-04-15T08:50:46Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65126/ Who looks after the kids? the effects of childcare choice on early childhood development in China* Zhang, Jing Appleton, Simon Song, Lina Liu, Bing This paper examines whether childcare choice affects the early childhood development of children aged 7–59 months. Using the data from Chinese Family Panel Studies, we look at household choices between parental and grandparental cares and the timing of four key early life achievements – walking, talking, counting and toilet training. We conceptualize early childhood development within a household production model, which enables us to identify the impacts of childcare. Our results suggest that compared with parental care, grandparental care delays the achievement of all four outcome measures. Grandparental care is particularly disadvantageous for children who are ‘left-behind’ by migrant parents. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2021-02-11 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65126/1/Zhang-2021-Who-looks-after-the-kids-the-effect.pdf Zhang, Jing, Appleton, Simon, Song, Lina and Liu, Bing (2021) Who looks after the kids? the effects of childcare choice on early childhood development in China*. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics . ISSN 0305-9049 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/obes.12410 doi:10.1111/obes.12410 doi:10.1111/obes.12410
spellingShingle Zhang, Jing
Appleton, Simon
Song, Lina
Liu, Bing
Who looks after the kids? the effects of childcare choice on early childhood development in China*
title Who looks after the kids? the effects of childcare choice on early childhood development in China*
title_full Who looks after the kids? the effects of childcare choice on early childhood development in China*
title_fullStr Who looks after the kids? the effects of childcare choice on early childhood development in China*
title_full_unstemmed Who looks after the kids? the effects of childcare choice on early childhood development in China*
title_short Who looks after the kids? the effects of childcare choice on early childhood development in China*
title_sort who looks after the kids? the effects of childcare choice on early childhood development in china*
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65126/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65126/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65126/