Private Lives in the Public Sphere: Family-Employment Spillover among Low-Income Women Dr. Lucy P. Jordan Research Fellow University of St Andrews

Broad Conceptual Framework Dominant social values are reflected in relationships between families, the market and the state US child care policy strategy as case study where administrative regulations and practices can influence access and sustainability of receiving public assistance for child care eligibility restrictions, transaction costs, financial disincentives operate to ration potentially scarce resource—public child care subsidies Child care subsidies by low-income women may facilitate sustained participation in paid employment with important long-term economic benefits

Child Care & Subsidies Residualist US Welfare State Changes in women’s labour market participation Public child care funding streams were consolidated as result of Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996  Temporary Aid the Needy Families (TANF)  Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) - Individual US states have broad discretion in design

Employment-family spillover Spillover can be negative or positive Employment-to-family spillover  scheduled hours, workplace flexibility and social support (Hill et al, 2001, p. 49). Family-to-employment spillover  dependent (child and elder) care difficulties and other family obligations (Glass & Estes, 1997).

Methods Quasi-experimental research design  Try to address selection bias & endogeneity Instrumental Variable (IV) approach  Select measures of child care subsidy policy (CCDF) as exogenous variables, primarily to address issues of endogeneity

Data Sources Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (Fragile Families)  Nationally representative sample of 20 U.S. cities  Oversampling of non-marital births  Baseline (4,898 mothers) and one-year follow up (89%) CCDF &TANF policy, local economy controls

Policy Context CCDF Policy  Access: local agency, state agency, combined  Parent co-payment  Monthly reimbursement rate  State prioritises TANF recipients TANF Policy  Time limits for participation  One time diversion payment  Maximum benefit  Strictness: Family cap & Duration of sanction

Research Question & Hypotheses How does child care subsidy receipt vary based on different configuration of policy levers? Child care subsidy participation will facilitate balance between paid employment and family life Child care subsidy participation will be associated with lower levels of negative family-employment spillover

Subsidy Receipt Varies across 20 cities from 3% to 21% of sampled women Dichotomous measure based on series of questions about ‘Who helps pay for child care’ (relatives, government and other agencies, non-resident parent, employers, other)

Key dependent variables

Key Findings Modest effects of policy variables across all models  Access to subsidies: multiple organisations negative association (compared to local voucher agency  Welfare strictness & TANF time limits as expected  TANF diversion

Key Findings Individual’s prior history of TANF: strong predictor Single mothers more likely to have subsidy Married mothers more likely to experience negative employment-family spillover High school graduate less likely to report negative spillover

Limitations State level policy data masks variation at county level, especially in Texas (three cities) Aggregation on features of employment (occupation, shift hours) Mode/type of child care (formal or informal/centre based vs. kith or kin)