Impact of free availability of public childcare on labour supply and child development in Brazil

This report examines the impacts of a large-scale provision of free centre-based care on child development, maternal labour market outcomes and family environment. Rio de Janeiro’s public day-care programme targets an integrated early childhood development programme for infants and children aged up to three years. It includes day care, health services, food and access to instructional toys and material for children.

The results showed strong impacts on anthropometrics outcomes of children several years after they left the crèches. It found that access to day-care centres resulted in sustained increases in household income associated with labour market outcomes of the grandparents. However, there were no robust impacts on cognitive skills, executive functions or family behaviour towards children’s education. Nor were there changes in the other labour market outcomes for other family members.