Overview

Abstract (English)

We study the labour force impact of introducing formal childcare services to 34 Inuit communities in Canada’s North. We use geographic variation in the timing and intensity of the introduction of childcare services in the late 1990s and early 2000s to estimate the impact of increased access to childcare. We combine the 1996, 2001, and 2006 long-form census files with data on the number of childcare spaces in each of the 34 communities over time. We find that a one standard deviation increase in the number of childcare spaces per 100 children increases labour force participation in single-adult households by 3.6 percent. We find no impact in households with more than one adult present. We suggest plausible explanations for these findings and avenues for future research.

Abstract (French)

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