SUPPLY AND DEMAND FOR CHILD CARE SERVICES

该项目将分析最近的两项全国调查，以贡献基本的 关于托儿市场运作的信息。焦点 这项研究的重点是衡量消费者的行为反应 以及生产商所面临的经济激励。 对生产者行为的分析将量化决定因素 提供托儿服务。对于基于中心的提供商，分析 将恢复对儿童保育技术的估计，以及 供给和要素需求。生产经济学的理论将是 用来调查行为差异是否存在于 非营利和营利性中心。对非正式提供者的分析将 重点关注个人进入家庭住房提供商的决定。它 将调查家庭结构的相对重要性，当地 进入中国的经济条件和国家监管环境 这个职业。 对消费者行为的分析将纳入交易成本和 偏好和机会的异质性(观察到和未观察到) 在家庭中设置，拟议的研究将照亮潜力 儿童保育市场中摩擦的来源和程度。这个 分析将描述消费者搜索过程，并将 调查这种观察到的行为是否与经济 搜索的典范。 这些调查采用了内生抽样技术。这个项目将 评估使用它们的实际困难。该项目将 实现最近提出的复离散型仿真估值器 精选模特。蒙特卡罗分析将描述他们的统计特征 属性。这些估计器的实际实施也将 被评估。

This project will analyze two recent national surveys to contribute basic information on the operation of the child care market. The focal point of this research will be to measure the behavioral responses of consumers and producers to the economic incentives they face. Analyses of producer behavior will quantify the determinants of the supply of child care services. For center based providers, the analysis will recover estimates of child care technology, and elasticities of supply and factor demand. The theory of production economics will be used to investigate whether behavioral differences exist between non-profit and for-profit centers. Analysis of informal providers will focus on individual entry decisions into family home providership. It will investigate the relative importance of family structure, local economic conditions and the state regulatory environment on entry into the profession. The analysis of consumer behavior will incorporate transaction costs and heterogeneity (observed and unobserved) in preferences and opportunity sets across households, The proposed research will illuminate potential sources and magnitudes of friction in the child care market. The analysis will characterize the consumer search process and will investigate whether this observed behavior is consistent with economic models of search. The surveys employed endogenous sampling techniques. This project will assess the practical difficulties of their use. The project will implement recently proposed simulation estimators for complex discrete choice models. Monte Carlo analysis will characterize their statistical properties. The practical implementation of these estimators will also be assessed.