What Are the Benefits of Subsidised Early Childcare? Evidence From Kenya

From GrOW/McGill. This policy brief presents results of a CBA of the subsidized childcare project. Since information about the monetary value of benefits (mothers’ earnings and day care fees saved) is available only for the year that the project was executed, results pertain to the monetization of benefits for this period. Costs include day care fees, cash transfers and expenditures on training and material. Regarding benefits, they can be observed at the child level, the mother level and the sibling level. The monetization of benefits is generally challenging due to the limitations of available data. Thus, the authors provide a monetary value to benefits only in the case they are easily identifiable using data collected during the survey.

Key findings:

• Mothers who used subsidized childcare services experienced an increase in their earnings and free time.

• Attending day care may increase children’s future earnings and life expectancy.

• Subsidized childcare may increase school enrollment for older siblings.

• The benefits associated with providing subsidized early childcare outweigh the costs.