Maryna Ivets (CINCH)

In this paper I explore the early child care (ECC) reform in Germany that substantially expanded supply of places to children under the age of three. I investigate the effect of early child care expansion on children's non-cognitive development in the short and medium run. I use data from the German Survey of Youth and Adolescents (KiGGS) and find evidence of some negative short-term effect for the cohorts of children with increased universal early childcare access, especially pronounced in boys.  However, when these kids reach primary-school ages I find no evidence of effect, thus indicating that the initial negative effect is not persistent in the medium term.