Progress 10/01/02 to 09/30/05
Outputs
Research on this project is cofunded by the Dept of Health and Human Services Child Care Bureau, and dissemination has been supported by a grant from the Kellogg Foundation to Smart Start National Technical Assistance Center. We developed two popular extension reports for dissemination in 2005. Economic Development Strategies to Promote Quality Child Care, focuses on the principles of economic development and how those policies can be linked to child care. Comparing Child Care Multipliers in the Regional Economy: Analysis from 50 States provides data on input-output models run for all 50 states and Washington DC. Child Care and Parent Productivity: Making the Business Case shows how the business community measures the impact of work family policies such as child care. We conducted teleconference trainings with technical assistance staff on use of each of these reports in May, 2005, and a teleconference for all state administrators which was hosted by Assoc.
Commissioner Shannon Christian at the Child Care Bureau in May. Our work was presented at the International Womens Policy Research Conference in Washington, in June, and the Economics Action Research Network in Sept. We have completed individual case studies of 30 state and local economic impact study teams interviewed as part of our qualitative tracking project. The case studies provide in-depth information about the research process, measures, products and results. These are posted to the project website. We wrote a policy paper which is currently under review on this stage of the qualitative research. On the modeling and theoretical challenges side we hosted a two-day meeting of economists in May (with support from the Kellogg Foundation). Papers from that workshop are now under review for a special issue of the Journal of the Community Development Society. Our project team papers include one looking at forward linkages and the role of hypothetical extraction, one looking at the
conceptual and data challenges faced by the state and local teams, and one addressing policy alternatives. Technical assistance to state and local teams, on conducting studies, planning roll-out events and crafting new policy and administrative approaches, continued to be a priority. Support has been provided in the last six months to North Dakota (planning follow up events), Wisconsin (planning follow up events), Monroe Co NY (planning follow up events), Nassau, Westchester and Suffolk counties, NY (Follow up research activities), Virginia (planning follow up events), New Jersey (study in progress), Georgia (in planning stages), and Alaska (in planning stages). We have profiled many examples across the country where child care has been addressed with economic development policy tools. These are all profiled in the Tool Box section of the Economic Development Strategy Guide. We have shown child care should be a part of economic development practice and have reached out to economic
developers and planners with this work.
Impacts
This project has had a major impact on child care and economic development policy across the country. State and local teams have used the Cornell Methodology Guide to conduct regional economic studies of their child care sectors. We have assisted over 30 teams during the course of this project. Teams are also using our Economic Development Strategy Guide and our Parent Productivity report to reach out to economic development and business partners to craft new economic development solutions to strengthen the child care sector in their communities. We distributed our 50-state analysis to state administrators in every state and followed up with a telephone conference workshop sponsored by the Federal Child Care Bureau. We have been invited to work with planners and economic developers to show them how they can participate in child care planning. Publications in the Planning Advisory Services which goes to 1500 practicing planners nationwide, and in the Economic
Development Quarterly, the primary professional journal of economic developers, attest to our leadership role. On the academic side, we have been able to challenge the conceptual and methodological problems with looking at local service sectors in regional economic models that have for too long privileged export sectors as the leading sources of economic development.
Publications
- Warner, M.E. and Liu, Z. 2006. The Importance of Child Care in Economic Development: A Comparative Analysis of Regional Economic Linkage, Economic Development Quarterly 20(1):97-103.
- Warner, M.E. 2006. Child Care and Economic Development: The Role for Planners, Planning Advisory Service (PAS) Memo, American Planning Association. Jan/Feb 2006.
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Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
We made significant progress on program objectives during our second year. We completed a Methodology Guide on how to conduct economic impact studies, submitted it to wide critical outside review, and distributed it at the Jan 2004 Smart Start meeting in North Carolina. We have provided training to many state and local teams at national Smart Start and State Administrators Conferences as well as over the phone, web and email support. We have been conducting extensive research on economic development policy and how this can be linked to child care. A report on the parent productivity effects of work family policies was released in 2004. We developed a track at the 2004 Smart Start Conference on economic development and have staffed a peer to peer learning community focused on developing shared management strategies for early care and education businesses. This resulted in a report on Collective Management published jointly with Smart Start. Our work on modeling has
proceeded on two fronts. First, we ran and analyzed input-output models of all 50 states and the District of Colombia and have been exploring the reasons for geographic differences in linkage effects of child care across states. This 50 State report was released in late 2004. A journal article is being prepared on this analysis for an economic development journal. Second, we have continued our analysis of forward linkages and are doing experimental modeling work on the NYS data. Forward sectoral linkages are a particularly salient concept for measuring the economic significance of childcare (because the forward linkage of the household sector is through sales of labor) and we have determined that hypothetical extraction (HE) is a method that can be used to measure the extent of forward and backward linkages.
Impacts
We sent copies of our Methodology Guide to every state and local team who has conducted or is in the process of conducting a study and distributed 500 copies at the State Administrators Meeting in Washington in summer 2004. A searchable data base of all teams conducting economic impact studies can be found on our web site. We completed a first tracking report in Winter 2004 of states that had already conducted studies. We provided direct support in analysis and writing to Long Island, New York City, Monroe Co and Chemung Co, New York. Each of these is a county follow on report to the NYS report which was formally released in winter 2004. We have provided advisory support to: Massachusetts (report complete), Louisiana, North Dakota (report complete), North Carolina (report complete), Maine (report complete), New Jersey, Virginia (statewide and Fairfax Co), Indiana, Alabama, Oregon, Connecticut (report complete), Missouri, Iowa, Manitoba, CA (report complete), and
Seattle, Washington (report complete). Over 50 states and localities have conducted economic impact studies of the child care sector since 2001 - many using Cornell developed materials for guidance. We also have developed and posted a 50 state data base which provides an overview of all current, national sources of comparative data on the early care and education sector including: child care economic data, demographic data, and early care and education program (policy) data.
Publications
- Liu, Zhilin, Rosaria Ribeiro and Mildred Warner. 2004. Comparing Child Care Multipliers in the Regional Economy: Analysis from 50 States, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Department of City and Regional Planning. http://economicdevelopment.cce.cornell.edu
- Shellenback, K. 2004. Child Care and Parent Productivity: Making the Business Case, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Department of City and Regional Planning. http://economicdevelopment.cce.cornell.edu
- Stoney, L. 2004. Collective Management of Early Childhood Programs, Smart Start Technical Assistance Center and Cornell University. Available at http://economicdevelopment.cce.cornell.edu
- Stoney, L. 2004. Framing Child Care as Economic Development: Lessons from Early Studies. Cornell University. Available at http://economicdevelopment.cce.cornell.edu
- Ribeiro, Rose and M. Warner. 2004. Measuring the Regional Economic Importance of Early Care and Education: The Cornell Methodology Guide Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. http://economicdevelopment.cce.cornell.edu
- Stoney,L., M. Warner and K. Klockowski. 2004. The Child Care Industry: An Integral Part of Long Island's Economy, Child Care Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, available at www.chilcaresuffolk.org.
- Warner, Mildred et al. 2004. Investing in New York; An Economic Analysis of the Early Care and Education Sector in New York State, April 2004. Prepared for NYS Child Care Coordinating Council and NYS Office of Children and Family Services. Available at http://economicdevelopment.cce.cornell.edu
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Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03
Outputs
The importance of child care to economic development is gaining increasing interest across the nation. Our work in 2003 focused on working with several states to conduct basic analyses of child care as an economic sector. We completed full economic analyses of the child care sector for Kansas and New York State in 2003 and wrote reports for the state teams. These are available on our web site. We also worked with the State of Massachusetts, completing the input output modeling for a report they are still in the process of developing. We also began work on a methodology guide to help other state teams interested in conducting such analyses. Interest in this topic is quite strong and many state and local teams are conducting their own analyses. We have been tracking all studies completed to date and this can be found on our web site http://economicdevelopment.cce.cornell.edu. Our research involves tracking the work of state teams, identifying policy options and working
on a new modeling framework. A challenge in assessing the regional economic importance of the child care sector is that it is a sector that does not have a large export component and relies instead on significant household demand. We have been working on a modeling approach that uses the I/O framework, not in a traditional multiplier sense, but instead to measure both forward and backward linkages - an approach we believe to be more important for service sectors such as child care.
Impacts
Examining the role of child care as economic development has gained considerable attention in 2003. Nine states and 21 counties have conducted economic impact analyses to date and studies are underway in seven more states and 6 counties. Our work is cited as a primary referent on how to conduct studies, methodological and theoretical challenges as well as policy implications. We maintain a web site for users and provide consultation over the phone and in person. In 2003 we presented at the Federal Child Care Bureau's Research Conference in April and State Administrators Meeting in August in Washington DC. We also presented at the Smart Start Early Care and Education Finance Reform Meeting in North Carolina in January, the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies meeting in Washington, DC in March, the National Association of Counties in July in Milwaukee, and at the Florida Childrens' Forum in September and the Iowa Early Care, Health and
Education Congress in November.
Publications
- Stoney, L., M.E .Warner, & A.E. Woolley. 2003. Investing in the Child Care Industry: An Economic Development Strategy for Kansas. Kansas City, KS: Mid-America Regional Council. Available at http://economicdevelopment.cce.cornell.edu
- Warner, M.E., R. Ribeiro and A.E. Smith, 2003. Addressing the Affordablility Gap: Framing Child Care as Economic Development. Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, 12(3):294-313
- Warner, M.E., C. Frye, S. Crawford, E. Gonzalez, A. Goodman, A. Kissam, C. McGowan, K. Odekon, M. Snadoz-Dennis, and T. Snilberg 2003. Economic Analysis of the Early Care and Education Sector in New York State: Cornell University Technical Report. Prepared for NYS Child Care Coordinating Council and NYS Office of Children and Family Services. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. Available at: http://economicdevelopment.cce.cornell.edu
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