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Daycare and women’s health, social, and economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries: Systematic review and evidence synthesis
  • Sam Harper
Sam Harper
McGill University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

Research from high-income countries suggests that increasing the availability of daycare can improve economic outcomes for mothers, but similar research from low- and middle-income countries is lacking. We systematically searched databases of published and unpublished literature for studies that measured the impact of daycare provision on social, economic, and health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries without language or publication date restrictions. We synthesized the evidence using both narrative review and random effects meta-analysis. We found 2073 studies and included 13 after applying our exclusion criteria. For a 30 percentage point increase in daycare utilization we estimate that maternal employment increased by 6 percentage points (95% confidence interval: 4 to 8), but we found considerable between-study heterogeneity and evidence of effect measure modification within studies. The impact on maternal earnings was mixed, and few studies assessed the impact of daycare on non-economic outcomes. We found moderate but heterogeneous evidence that interventions to increase access to formal daycare increase maternal labor force participation. Future studies would benefit from assessing the impact of daycare on non-economic outcomes and understanding the heterogeneity between studies.