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The Local Politics of Social Investment Under Fiscal Constraints:The Case of Childcare Expansion in Germany
Title / Series / Name
Regulation and Governance
Publication Volume
19
Publication Issue
3
Pages
Author
Editors
Keywords
Childcare
Fiscal policy
Local government
Party politics
Social investment
Sociology and Political Science
Public Administration
Law
Fiscal policy
Local government
Party politics
Social investment
Sociology and Political Science
Public Administration
Law
Files
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Bremer-Bjo_rn1_2025.pdf
Adobe PDF, 896.48 KB
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/27803
Abstract
Governments in many of the advanced economies expanded childcare, an exemplary social investment policy, in recent years. Yet, considerable regional variation exists in expansion efforts, and often the supply of childcare still does not match demand. We explore the politics of this regional variation by studying Germany, a country that recently introduced a legal entitlement to childcare. Despite this legal entitlement, we argue that local political and economic factors (continue to) matter for childcare expansion and regional variation in coverage. We expect left-wing local political majorities to be associated with higher expansion and coverage rates. At the same time, tight local fiscal constraints should limit partisan room for maneuver and should slow down expansion. Analyzing local-level data on childcare coverage rates, socioeconomic context factors, and government partisanship, we find evidence of conditional effects between fiscal and partisan variables. We furthermore examine how local governments reconcile gaps in childcare provision with the legal entitlement and what distributive consequences this has.
Topic
Publisher
Place of Publication
Type
Journal article
Date
2025-06-11
Language
ISBN
Identifiers
10.1111/rego.70037