Childcare voucher and labour market behaviour: Experimental evidence from Finland

This paper provides experimental estimates of the impact of a voucher for private care within the Nordic system of universal provision of public care. The private childcare voucher acted as a significant boost for new childcare entrepreneurs to enter the market thus increasing the overall childcare provision in the municipalities participating in the experiment. In a market that was providing high-quality, low-cost public childcare, a voucher is nevertheless found to have a significant, positive effect for the use of private childcare with zero to negligible effects on the use of public care and labour force participation.