The role of economic incentives and attitudes in participation and childcare decisions

Abstract

We analyze the participation and childcare decisions made by mothers in two-parent households with children aged 0-12 in the Netherlands, paying special attention to the role of attitudes regarding work and care. In a multinomial logit model we distinguish between not working, a small parttime job, and a larger job. For working mothers we consider no childcare, informal, and formal childcare. We account for potential endogeneity of attitudes. The results show that the role of the price of formal childcare in the decision-making process is negligible. A higher earnings capacity increases the take-up of larger jobs and formal childcare. Modern attitudes have a strong impact on the decisions to work and to use childcare.labor force participation, childcare use, attitudes about childcare, multinomial logit