We evaluate the effect of child care versus maternal time inputs on child cognitive development using single mothers from the NLSY79. To deal with nonrandom selection of children into child care, we exploit the exogenous variation in welfare policy rules facing single mothers. In particular, the...

This article evaluates the effects of maternal vs. alternative care providers' time inputs on children's cognitive development using the sample of single mothers in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. To deal with the selection problem created by unobserved heterogeneity of mothers and...

This paper develops and estimates a dynamic model of employment and child care decisions of women after birth in order to evaluate the effects of mothers' decisions on children's cognitive ability. I use data from the NLSY to estimate the model. The results suggest that the effects of maternal...