The effect of childcare costs on labour supply

The effectiveness of incentives towards participation in the labour market will depend to a large extent on the costs and the availability of childcare outside the home. The aim of this project is to incorporate detailed measures of the costs of childcare into the labour supply models used by the Melbourne Institute Tax and Transfer Simulator (MITTS). This will greatly improve our understanding of the barriers to working outside the home for both sole parents and married mothers. The study will provide the first comprehensive research linking childcare policies, other tax and transfer programs and labour supply in Australia.

More information about the effect of childcare costs on labour(pdf 130KB)

The Melbourne Institute contact for this project is Dr Guyonne Kalb.

The final report has been submitted.

The research paper arising from this project is: