Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the Catalan 2004 law aimed at increasing public childcare coverage for under three years-old on the participation in formal childcare for families from different socio-economic backgrounds. To this purpose, it uses the ''Panell de Desigualtats Socials a Catalunya'' (PaD) database and exploits the uneven increase in public coverage across counties (comarques). The paper finds that while the policy alleviates the socio-economic participation gap between lower- and higher-income families, this one persists for certain sub-groups. More specifically, children whose parents have low education levels, or those from low-income families where the mother works part-time or is in charge of the house and children are significantly less likely to participate in formal childcare than their high-income counterparts.