Reproducibility package for Workplace Or Community-Based Childcare: Testing Childcare Models For Ugandan Market Women

Improving productivity in the informal sector is critical for improving the livelihoods of billions of people throughout the world. While emerging evidence has documented encouraging impacts of childcare support for women and household welfare, how to structure childcare access to best benefit women and their families remains unclear. In a sample of 883 women working in six markets in and near Kampala, Uganda, we use a randomized controlled trial to assess the impacts of free childcare access and further test and contrast two different forms of childcare services frequently considered by policy-makers: publicly styled marketplace-based centers and community-based private childcare centers. Gaining access to childcare support causes significant, positive impacts across a range of outcomes including re-distribution of childcare burden, a reduction in women's labor force participation accompanied by an increase in earning efficiency, and improvements in women's well-being and child development. The two models have significantly different and differential take-up, with patterns suggesting that meaningful non-cost barriers can still affect women's ability to take advantage of desired services independent of explicit costs.