The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the extent to which state institutions and politics influence the policy-making process for childcare regulation, and the impact of such regulation and its enforcement on the supply of childcare centers. In particular, this research seeks to answer three related questions. First, how and why do regulatory standards for childcare centers vary so widely from state to state? Second, under what conditions do state governments change the degree of childcare regulation? Third, what factors determine the supply of childcare centers?
To answer these research questions, I construct several hypotheses based on three theoretical frameworks: the internal determinant model, the party competition model, and the regulation and enforcement model. To test the hypotheses empirically, several indicators are constructed based on regulation data gathered between 1983 and 2005. The models are estimated by pooled times series with panel corrected standard errors.
Overall, the key hypotheses extracted from the three theoretical frameworks are well supported by empirical evidence. The reason that states have diverse requirements for childcare regulation is because state governments can tailor their policy to the needs of employed mothers’ groups, and to the changing conditions of internal politics and economics. The empirical results show that electoral competition, party strength, and the interaction between those factors have a significant impact on the change in the strength of regulations governing childcare centers. In particular, electoral competition is critical in determining what direction a political party will go when deciding how strong childcare regulation should be in a particular state. Empirical evidence indicates that government enforcement is a critical factor in the relationship between the strength of childcare regulation and the supply of childcare centers. The impact of regulatory stringency on the supply of childcare centers becomes very significant where there are frequent government visits to the centers.
