BACKGROUND
Public childcare provision and female labor force participation (FLP) have strongly increased over the past decades in European societies. However, studies offer heterogeneous findings on the link between public childcare and FLP.

OBJECTIVE
We investigate the link between public childcare and FLP, using different indicators of childcare and accounting for heterogeneous time trends and regional heterogeneity.

METHODS
Based on a balanced panel of all German counties from 2007 to 2017, we estimate the effect of an increasing enrollment rate for children aged 0–2 and 3–5 on FLP. We compare fixed effect (FE) and fixed effect individual slope estimators (FEIS) to control for county-specific time trends. Subsequently, we compare the results across regions with different levels of urbanization.

RESULTS
We find that most FE results are biased due to selection on trends. Still, when accounting for selection on trends, childcare enrollment for the age group 0–2 increases FLP in West Germany and in urban areas. Furthermore, childcare enrollment for children aged 3–5 years is associated with higher FLP in West Germany, in rural and, most strongly, in metropolitan areas.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study highlights important heterogeneity in the general time trends of FLP and the effectiveness of childcare arrangements across different regions in Germany.



中文翻译：

---

公共托儿服务在哪些方面促进了女性劳动力参与？探索 2007-2017 年德国的地理异质性（Franz Neuberger、Tobias Rüttenauer、Martin Bujard）

背景技术
在过去的几十年里，欧洲社会的公共托儿服务和女性劳动力参与（FLP）急剧增加。然而，研究提供了关于公共儿童保育与 FLP 之间联系的异质性研究结果。

目的
我们调查公共托儿与 FLP 之间的联系，使用不同的托儿指标并考虑异质的时间趋势和区域异质性。

方法
基于 2007 年至 2017 年所有德国县的平衡面板，我们估计了 0-2 岁和 3-5 岁儿童入学率增加对 FLP 的影响。我们比较固定效应 (FE) 和固定效应单个斜率估计量 (FEIS) 以控制特定县的时间趋势。随后，我们比较了不同城市化水平的地区的结果。

结果
我们发现，由于趋势选择，大多数 FE 结果存在偏差。尽管如此，在考虑趋势选择时，0-2 年龄组的儿童保育入学率增加了西德和城市地区的 FLP。此外，在西德、农村和大都市地区，3-5 岁儿童的托儿服务入学率与较高的 FLP 相关。

结论
我们的研究强调了 FLP 一般时间趋势的重要异质性以及德国不同地区儿童保育安排的有效性。