Child care center quality and early child development

The study investigates which kindergarten characteristics parents focus upon when applying for a place in kindergarten. The researchers also investigate how different aspects of kindergartens, such as the employees’ qualifications, experience and sick leave, as well as the proportion of male employees and employees with an immigrant background, affect the cognitive development of children who have been randomly assigned a place in kindergarten.

The results show that parents prefer kindergartens that are close to home. Families where parents have a high level of education and income more often choose kindergartens that have more and more experienced employees per child. They are also less likely to want to send their children to a kindergarten where many of the employees have an immigrant background. There is no evidence to suggest that families with an immigrant background prioritise kindergartens with employees who also have an immigrant background, but there is a tendency that they prefer kindergartens where many of the children come from immigrant families. In kindergartens that have male employees, children of both sexes get better results on language tests in primary school. High sick leave among kindergarten employees predicts poorer language and mathematics test results.

The investigation is based on an analysis of previously collected data from several different sources. Information about parents’ application process comes from the City of Oslo. Data on kindergarten employee characteristics have been retrieved from the State Register of Employers and Employees, and data on sick leave come from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). Statistics on the number of children in kindergarten are taken from Statistics Norway. The sample consists of a total of 2175 children from 260 kindergartens in Oslo.

Drange, N. & Rønning, M. (2020). «Child care center quality and early child development». Journal of Public Economics,188(8).