Public childcare provision, attitudes and first births in Germany

Publicly provided or subsidized childcare for children under three years is rising in many European countries. This should reduce conflicts between family and work and thus stimulate fertility. However, previous studies investigating this relationship found inconsistent results. This paper examines the impact of publicly provided or subsidized childcare on individual childbearing behavior in Germany. In addition to childcare services, also childcare attitudes are considered. The central argument is that childcare provision might incentivize entry into motherhood given that women generally approve the concept of child-minding outside the family. Using discrete time hazard models, we analyze the new yearly German family panel pairfam combined with regional data for the period between 2008 and 2010.