Background

This research estimates the effect of an expansion policy in the provision of public preschool places in Uruguay in the mid-1990s, on the preschool attendance of four and five year old children and on the participation of mothers in the labor market.

Methodology

The identification strategy exploits the differences in the number of new places available across regions.

Results

The results indicate that the expansion of places increased attendance to preschools although the take up rate was relatively low. This was partially because the expansion of public places crowded out the attendance to private schools, particularly among children of high-skill mothers. The policy was much more effective in increasing the attendance of children of low-skill mothers. For this group of mothers, however, we did not find any effect of the policy on their labor market outcomes.