The Impact of Child Care Costs on Female Labour Supply: An Analysis of the HILDA Survey

This project is being conducted as part of a larger research program titled, 'The Dynamics of Economic and Social Change: An Analysis of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey'.

Its main objective is to use the HILDA Survey data to estimate the size of the impact of child care costs on the labour supply of mothers. Not every mother works, and not all working mothers use or pay for child care. The first wave of the HILDA Survey data collected only information on child care use for households in which the caregivers were employed. Later waves of the HILDA Survey data also collected child care use for non-employment related purposes. The analysis closely follows previous analysis undertaken in the US and Canada , and assesses the robustness of the impact of child care costs on the labour supply of mothers under different model assumptions and data trimming decisions .

The contact for this project is Dr Hielke Buddelmeyer.