Participation instability has been recognized as a major challenge in state child care subsidy programs and may undermine the benefits of these programs to the children and families they are intended to support. Payment rates – the maximum amounts that state subsidy programs will pay for child care in a given period – directly determine which providers are affordable to subsidized consumers and what schedules of care they can afford. Payment rates also affect the resources available to providers and their incentive to accept subsidies. This study examines the effect of payment rate increases on the stability of participation in child care subsidies and the stability of subsidized care arrangements. We study the impact of a major update to payment rates for the Minnesota Child Care Assistance Program, using monthly child- and provider-level administrative data and a quasi-experimental design. We implement a regression discontinuity design built on the state's method of setting county rates. We find strong evidence that higher subsidy payment rates lead to more stable subsidy participation and care arrangements. Thus, state-determined payment rates are a critical policy lever that affects access to care.

中文翻译：

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支付率和补贴托儿服务的稳定性：来自明尼苏达州托儿援助计划的证据


参与不稳定被认为是各州儿童保育补贴计划的一项重大挑战，可能会破坏这些计划对他们打算支持的儿童和家庭的好处。支付率——国家补贴计划在给定时期内为托儿服务支付的最高金额——直接决定了哪些提供者是受补贴消费者负担得起的，以及他们能负担得起的护理时间表。支付率还会影响提供者可用的资源及其接受补贴的动机。本研究考察了支付率提高对参与托儿补贴的稳定性和补贴照料安排稳定性的影响。我们使用每月的儿童和提供者级别的管理数据以及准实验设计来研究明尼苏达州儿童保育援助计划付款率的重大更新的影响。我们实施了基于该州设置县费率的方法构建的回归不连续性设计。我们发现强有力的证据表明，更高的补贴支付率会导致更稳定的补贴参与和护理安排。因此，国家决定的支付率是影响获得护理的关键政策杠杆。