After-School Center-based Care and Children's Development

Abstract

What is the impact of after-school center-based care on the skill development of primary school-aged children? Answering this question is challenging due to non-random selection of children into after-school center-based care. We use detailed data of the German Child Panel and employ a value added estimation strategy to deal with the problem of reversed causality and omitted variable bias. While we do not find signicant effects on average, our analysis provides evidence for beneficial returns to after-school center-based care attendance for more disadvantaged children: Children of single mothers and less-educated mothers benefit from attending after-school care centers in terms of their school grades and behavior.