Sample data
- Sample selected from three districts in W Uganda, three in E Uganda, and three in C Uganda
- Using official lists from registered childcare centres, around 500 communities were identified as having at least one childcare centre
Criteria
To be a part, households had to satisfy three criteria:
i) The household should have exactly one child from 3-5 years of age
ii) The female caregiver should be present within the household
iii) The target child should not already be attending full-time childcare.
There were no constraints on the number of elder children.
Result gathering
- Participants were surveyed at baseline and ~1 year later to measure their labour supply and earnings and that of the other household members
- Information was gathered on family wellbeing and child development indicators for the “target child”
- The child survey was developed by Save the Children, and consists of a set of questions aimed at measuring the competency that children have over motor skills, literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills.
Characteristics
Notable inclusions were as such:
- The average mother was 35 years old and lived in a household of 5 members
- In terms of religion, about 1/3 of the women were Muslim, and the remainder Christian
- Important to consider the factors affecting labour supply
Experimental design
- Collaborated with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to implement the interventions
- Research design is as such:
RCT has four arms:
T1 - A childcare treatment that primarily targets the time constraint. This involves free, full-day childcare for one year
T2 - A cash treatment that primarily targets the capital constraint. This grant was labelled a business grant and on average was around USD 110 per year
T3 - A combined treatment group which offers both childcare and cash. This explores complementarity
C - A control group with no intervention
Timeline
- Baseline surveys conducted in November of 2018, sample was randomised into the four treatment arms at the individual level
- The interventions covered the 2019 school year: from February to November
- Followed up by a short term follow-up survey in August 2019 and a long term follow up survey in December 2019 for children, and in February 2020 for households, which were answered by the primary female caregiver of the target child.
Attrition
Importantly, the authors test for differential attrition rates
- Maxed out at 8% under the control group, and between 4-5% among the treatment arms
- Further to this, they confirm that all the treatments increased the enrolment rates in full-day childcare amongst the target children, a significant increase in the groups assigned to the childcare subsidy groups compared to the cash transfer
