Do child care subsidies increase the labour force participation of women in Australia?

Abstract

We hypothesise that child care subsidies increase the labour force participation of women within Australia. Our alternative hypothesis is that child care subsidies do not increase the labour force participation of women in Australia. This research pulls data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Organisation for Economic Co-operations, Development and the Productivity Commission and Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). Based on the regression analysis performed, we found that there was a notable positive relationship between the labour force participation rates of Australian females and child care subsidies by the Australian government. Nevertheless, it’s relevant to highlight that our data could be impacted by other considerations such as taxation changes coming out of the government and the apparent positive relationship between female employment and education over time.