@article{SandnerThomsenGonzalez2024, author = {Sandner, Malte and Thomsen, Stephan L. and Gonz{\´a}lez, Libertad}, title = {Preventing Child Maltreatment: Beneficial Side Effects of Public Childcare}, series = {The Economic Journal}, journal = {The Economic Journal}, publisher = {Oxford University Press (OUP)}, issn = {0013-0133}, doi = {10.1093/ej/ueae070}, year = {2024}, abstract = {We investigate the impact of public childcare provision on the incidence of severe child maltreatment. For identification, we exploit a reform that expanded early childcare in Germany, generating large temporal and spatial variation in childcare coverage at the county level. Using high-quality administrative data covering all reported cases of child maltreatment in Germany by county and year, we find that an increase in childcare slots by one percentage point in a county reduced child maltreatment cases leading to out-of-home placement by about 1\%. Our results suggest that the provision of universal public childcare may be more cost effective than previously thought.}, language = {en} }