correlated with its use for younger children (0-2), although it does not appear to matter for children aged 3 or older.

Several studies also point to the importance of coordination of different types of childcare services. First, Berlinski, Galiani, and McEwan (2011) show that the impacts of preschool availability for children age 5 on maternal labor force participation and work hours in Argentina are driven by mothers who do not have younger children. Similarly, Ryu (2020) also finds impacts on women without younger children. Martinez and Perticara (2017) demonstrate connections between different types of childcare services in Chile; extension of school hours for children from 6 to 13 also increased enrollment of children under 5 years into preschools. Moreover, the impacts of the program were the highest for women who did not work and had children under 5. This result suggests that childcare services may be ineffective if they alleviate constraints imposed by care demands for one of women’s children without addressing similar constraints associated with their other children. In Chile, preschool services were available prior to expansion of school hours, and apparently some women with older children did not take advantage of those services because they would not be able to work anyway.

Overall, the combined findings in this review suggest that explicit focus on maternal labor market engagement in design of childcare (such as adjusting hours of operation or coordinating different types of childcare services for different ages) has the potential to increase its impact on maternal labor market outcomes.

# **Child’s Age**

Our review suggests that the potential of childcare provision to increase maternal labor force participation is likely to vary depending on the ages of the children it targets. Our review includes studies of childcare provision to children aged 0 to 13. Different methodologies and differences in age bands of children included in the studies preclude us from explicitly comparing the effectiveness of childcare provision on maternal labor market outcomes at different ages. However, several broad themes emerge across studies suggesting that different policy tools may be needed for young children.

A few studies compare impacts of childcare for different age groups. In Mexico, maternal employment was more responsive when considering mothers of 4-year-olds in contrast to mothers of 3-year-olds (De la Cruz Toledo 2015). As discussed in the previous section, in addition to an increase in employment, the Mexican study also found a reduction in hours worked, likely to accommodate childcare center hours. Mothers of 3-year-olds reduced hours more than mothers of 4-year-olds, suggesting that mothers of younger children either preferred to pick up children themselves, or were leaving them in day care for shorter hours. In Vietnam, Dang, Hiraga, and Cuong (2019) examining impacts of childcare for children ages 1 to 5 find higher impacts for older children, although the differences are not statistically significant. Notably, these results are consistent with evidence from developed countries, where mothers also are more willing to place their older children in institutional childcare. For example, Denmark has the highest enrollment rate of young children ages 0-2 among OECD countries but this is only little more than 60 percent (Del Boca 2015). Rates of enrollment for Danish children 3-5 years are above 90%. In contrast, however, Hojman and Lopez-Boo (2019) find that impacts of childcare on work participation are similar for mothers of toddlers and mothers of 3-4-year-olds in Nicaragua.

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