Caitlyn Collins, an associate professor of sociology in WashU Arts & Sciences, is collaborating with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research on a two-year project examining childcare affordability in the United States. The project, led by Collins and Chloe Gibbs, a senior economist at the Upjohn Institute, is supported by a grant from Pivotal, a group of organizations founded by Melinda French Gates to accelerate the pace of social progress for women and young people in the U.S. and around the world.
Collins and Gibbs will conduct in-depth interviews and national surveys with the goal of bringing families’ voices to the table in policy discussions. The project will answer important questions including how parents across the income spectrum navigate the childcare market, what barriers they experience in accessing affordable childcare and how geography, income, family structure and background affect those barriers. They also will study how different labor and childcare policy interventions — such as workplace flexibility, childcare subsidies/vouchers and direct public provision of daycare slots — are most effective at enabling parents to choose their preferred care and work arrangements.
Ultimately, their goal is to generate evidence on what works in improving the market for childcare, to inform the broader policy conversation and to bring those solutions to scale.
