The Regional Economic Importance of Child Care
Child care, like roads and bridges, is an important part of the infrastructure for economic development. Resources profiled here help teams articulate the regional economic importance of the child care sector and identify new policy approaches to strengthen the sector.
- Browse the database of Child Care Economic Impact studies.
Size of Sector
The first step in conducting an economic analysis of the child care sector is to gather data on your sector. The Cornell Methodology Guide is designed to help you through this process.
- Measuring the Regional Economic Importance of Early Care and Education: The Cornell Methodology Guide, January, 2004. Rosaria Ribeiro and Mildred Warner, Ph.D. (View cover pages, full text in PDF format, or full text in HTML format, including interactive tools.)
- A quantitative database is now available that provides an overview of all current, national sources of comparative data on the early care and education sector including: child care economic data, demographic data, and early care and education program (policy) data.
Linkage Effects
Many states want to conduct regional input-output analyses to determine the linkage effects of the child care sector. Cornell has conducted models for all 50 states.
- Liu, Zhilin, Rosaria Ribeiro and Mildred Warner, 2004. Comparing Child Care Multipliers in the Regional Economy: Analysis from 50 States, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Department of City and Regional Planning. The full paper has detailed tables on the model results for every state; a brochure, containing a brief summary of the paper, is also available.
Other Resources
Other resources for linking child care and economic development are available. See the materials developed in Tompkins County, on Collective Management, and fund design, as well as resources from innovative work in other states.
State and Local Reports conducted by Cornell University
- Long Island: Read the report The Child Care Industry: An Integral Part of Long Island’s Economy.
- Kansas: Read the Executive Summary of the report "Investing in the Child Care Industry: An Economic Development Strategy for Kansas", or read the Final Report.
- New York: Read the executive summary or the full text of the report "Investing in New York: An Economic Analysis of the Early Care and Education Sector", prepared by the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University.
Economic Development Policy Options
A statewide conference on economic development and child care was held in NYS in Spring 2006.
General Conference Information
Issue Briefs
- New York State Survey on Economic Development and Child Care
- Community Coalitions for Child Care
- Labor Force Trends and the Role of Child Care in New York
- Economic Development Planning
- Driving Transportation and Child Care Together
- Financing Child Care: Banking Finance and Federal Community Development Funds
PowerPoint Presentations
- NYS Survey of Economic Development and Child Care - Results
- Linking Child Care and Economic Development - Mildred Warner presentation to Cultivating Connections NYS conference, May 24, 2006
- Energizing your Human Capital for Organizational Resiliency
Teams need to understand economic development policy and how it can be linked to child care. Cornell has developed a planning guide and tool box which profiles examples from across the country:
- Warner, M., Adriance, S., Barai, N., Halla, J., Markeson, B., Morrissey, T. & Soref, W. 2005. Economic Development Strategies to Promote Quality Child Care, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Department of City and Regional Planning. (A brochure version is also available.)
- Warner, M. E. "Child Care and Economic Development: The Role for Planners," PAS Memo, American Planning Association. Jan/Feb 2006. Planning Advisory Service Memo sent to all members of the American Planning Association.
For employers interested in work life policies, this publication shows how to measure the economic effects at the firm level:
- Shellenback, K. 2004. Child Care and Parent Productivity: Making the Business Case, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Department of City and Regional Planning.
PowerPoint Presentations
- A series of presentations presented to the Child Care Coalition of Manitoba in April 2007 (overview, intellectual challenges, political challenges, and technical challenges)
- Early Care and Education: A Regional Economic Framework, presented to the Strongest Links Conference in January 2006
- View the presentation A Regional Economic Analysis of the Child Care Sector in NYS, Presented to the NYS Child Care Coordinating Council, Annual Meeting, Albany, NY, Jan. 14, 2004.
- Understanding the Impact of Child Care on Local Economies, PowerPoint presentation from the Child Care Bureau Research Symposium, April 15, 2004
- Linking Child Care and Economic Development: Four Challenges. PowerPoint presentation from the State Child Care Administrators' Meeting, August 2003
- The Economic Impact of the Early Care and Education Sector. Presentation from the National Association of Counties (NACO) Meeting, July 2003
- Child Care as Economic Development: Theoretical and Empirical Challenges. Presentation from the Child Care Bureau Research Meeting, April 2003
- Energizing your Human Capital for Organizational Resiliency: The Business Case for Work/Life Initiatives. Presentation from the Smart Start Conference, May 8-9, 2007