Labour Presentation

Question 1

Sample data

Answer 1

• Sample selected from three districts in W Uganda, three in E Uganda, and three in C Uganda
• Using official lists from registered childcare centres, around 500 communities were identified as having at least one childcare centre

Question 2

Criteria

Answer 2

To be a part, households had to satisfy three criteria:
i) The household should have exactly one child from 3-5 years of age
ii) The female caregiver should be present within the household
iii) The target child should not already be attending full-time childcare.

There were no constraints on the number of elder children.

Question 3

Result gathering

Answer 3

• Participants were surveyed at baseline and ~1 year later to measure their labour supply and earnings and that of the other household members
• Information was gathered on family wellbeing and child development indicators for the “target child”
• The child survey was developed by Save the Children, and consists of a set of questions aimed at measuring the competency that children have over motor skills, literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills.

Question 4

Characteristics

Answer 4

Notable inclusions were as such:
- The average mother was 35 years old and lived in a household of 5 members
- In terms of religion, about 1/3 of the women were Muslim, and the remainder Christian
- Important to consider the factors affecting labour supply

Question 5

Experimental design

Answer 5

• Collaborated with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to implement the interventions
• Research design is as such:
  RCT has four arms:
  T1 - A childcare treatment that primarily targets the time constraint. This involves free, full-day childcare for one year
  T2 - A cash treatment that primarily targets the capital constraint. This grant was labelled a business grant and on average was around USD 110 per year
  T3 - A combined treatment group which offers both childcare and cash. This explores complementarity
  C - A control group with no intervention

Question 6

Timeline

Answer 6

• Baseline surveys conducted in November of 2018, sample was randomised into the four treatment arms at the individual level
• The interventions covered the 2019 school year: from February to November
• Followed up by a short term follow-up survey in August 2019 and a long term follow up survey in December 2019 for children, and in February 2020 for households, which were answered by the primary female caregiver of the target child.

Question 7

Attrition

Answer 7

Importantly, the authors test for differential attrition rates
- Maxed out at 8% under the control group, and between 4-5% among the treatment arms
- Further to this, they confirm that all the treatments increased the enrolment rates in full-day childcare amongst the target children, a significant increase in the groups assigned to the childcare subsidy groups compared to the cash transfer