The early childhood care and education field is at an exciting moment. Across the US, there is increasing recognition of the economic importance of child care. Early care and education is being recognized as an important economic sector in its own right, and as a critical piece of social infrastructure that supports children's development and facilitates parents' employment. The Linking Economic Development and Child Care Research Project aims to better identify the economic linkages of child care from a regional economy perspective. We support states and localities interested in using an economic development framework to build coalitions with the economic development community, business interests and policy makers to help craft new approaches to child care finance.
This site provides a quantitative database of economic demographic and policy data for all 50 states and a qualitative database of all state and local studies (completed and in-progress). The site also includes research reports, copies of state studies, advice on economic analysis, and profiles of new approaches to child care policy.
Project partners
Child Care and the Stimulus
Information about supporting child care with the stimulus and calculating the economic impact of the stimulus.
Innovative Work Life Policies for Employers
The economic crisis provides the time to prepare employers to create child care options, robust work/life policies, and creative approaches to "balance" work responsibilities and the changing personal and family commitments of employees.
Planning for Family Friendly Communities
Learn about the roles planners can play in promoting family friendly communities.
Counting Care Work
Feminist economists have long argued that unpaid family care work should be counted in economic analyses and that women's extra care burden be acknowledged.
Recent News
Warner presents at the Designing Work-Family Policies for Families, Employers and Gender Equity event.
This project is made possible by support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Prior support was received from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Child Care Bureau research funds, the US Department of Agriculture Hatch research program administered by Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, and the Rauch Foundation. Project team is a collaboration of Cornell University (Dr. Mildred Warner and Dr. James Pratt), Louise Stoney of the Alliance for Early Education Finance, Gerry Cobb of the Smart Start National Technical Assistance Center, and Barbara Gault of the Institute for Women's Policy Research.