Child care for infants: trends and usage and costs, 1999 to 2002

Justine McNamara, Rebecca CASSELLS

    Research output: A Conference proceeding or a Chapter in BookConference contributionpeer-review

    Abstract

    Despite widespread concerns about the availability and affordability of child care for infants under two years of age , there is little Australian research which focuses specifically on child care usage and costs for this group of children. This study seeks to fill this gap by analysing unit record data from the 1999 and 2002 Child Care Surveys conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to examine trends in the use and costs of child care for children under two years of age. We focus on this time period because it allows us to assess the possible impact of the introduction of the Child Care Benefit in July 2000. Using descriptive and multivariate analyses, we found that a significantly greater percentage of those very young children using any child care were in formal care in 2002 than in 1999. We also found that costs of formal care to parents fell very slightly in real terms over the period, while demand for additional formal care rose slightly, mostly due to reported difficulties with availability of care. We found a number of differences in usage and cost trends for different family types, with low income and single parent families increasing their use of formal child care services more than the average, and experiencing a fall in real costs of care.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings of the 35th Australian Conference of Economists
    Place of PublicationAustralia
    PublisherCurtin University, Perth WA.
    Pages1-29
    Number of pages29
    ISBN (Print)1740675010
    Publication statusPublished - 2006
    Event35th Australian Conference of Economists - Perth, Australia
    Duration: 25 Sept 200627 Sept 2006

    Conference

    Conference35th Australian Conference of Economists
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    CityPerth
    Period25/09/0627/09/06

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Child care for infants: trends and usage and costs, 1999 to 2002'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this