Warner, Mildred E. 2006. "Putting Child Care in the Regional Economy: Empirical and Conceptual Challenges and Economic Development Prospects," Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society 37 (2): 7-22.
In the past four years more than 50 states and localities have formed teams that have attempted to measure the economic importance of child care from a regional perspective, from a labor mobilization perspective, and from a human development perspective. Conceptual and empirical problems abound. Data to measure these economic effects are inadequate, in part because data systems were not designed to count care work. Conceptually the fit with economic models is awkward. This suggests the need for new regional economic paradigms and new data systems. Recognizing the child care system as an underdeveloped market also offers the potential for new policy approaches, if the conceptual and methodological challenges can be overcome.
Subject: Child Care,Economic Development