2022年经济学人 更多负担得起的托儿服务将有助于一些母亲找到有报酬的工作（1）（在线收听）

Britain

英国版块

child care and growth

儿童保育与成长

Home economics

家政学

More affordable child care would help some mothers into paid work

更多负担得起的托儿服务将有助于一些母亲找到有报酬的工作

From the age of five, Alison Mbekeani dreamed of becoming a scientist.

从五岁起，艾莉森·姆贝凯尼就梦想成为一名科学家。

Following that dream took her to the University of Liverpool’s School of Tropical Medicine, then to Sierra Leone amid the Ebola outbreak in 2014, then to Durham University for her PhD.

追寻这个梦想，她去了利物浦大学热带医学院，然后在2014年埃博拉疫情爆发期间去了塞拉利昂，然后去了杜伦大学攻读博士学位。

But becoming a mother to two children put a brake on her career.

但成为两个孩子的母亲阻碍了她的职业生涯。

A couple of spots at nursery cost about as much as she was earning -- more once she factored in travel costs.

托儿所几个名额的费用和她的收入差不多--如果把旅行费用考虑在内，费用会更高。

She does not expect to return to the lab until her children are 16.

她不希望在孩子们16岁之前回到实验室。

Dr Mbekeani is not alone.

不只是姆贝凯尼博士有这种情况。

One survey in 2019 found that child-care responsibilities led 29% of mothers with a child under 14 to reduce their working hours, compared with just 5% of fathers.

2019年的一项调查发现，照顾孩子的责任导致29%的有14岁以下孩子的母亲减少了工作时间，而父亲中这一现象仅占5%。

That greatly damages their earnings.

这极大地损害了他们的收入。

A recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (ifs), a think-tank, found that in the ten years following the birth of their first child, mothers’ average hourly wage fell from 98% of average male earnings to 83%.

智库财政研究所(IFS)最近的一份报告发现，在第一个孩子出生后的十年里，母亲的平均时薪从男性平均时薪的98%下降到83%。

In a recent interview with Mumsnet, a parenting website, Boris Johnson said that better access to child care “would have a massive benefit for the economy”.

在最近接受育儿网站Mumsnet的采访时，鲍里斯·约翰逊表示，更好地提供儿童保育服务“将为经济带来巨大的好处”。

Would it?

会吗？

In an ideal world, the government would not have to worry about any of this.

在理想的世界里，政府不需要担心这一切。

Based on their preferences and potential earnings, parents would make a rational judgment over whether to outsource child care or keep it in-house; it might make sense for them to borrow to cover short-term costs, for instance.

根据他们的喜好和潜在收入，父母会做出理性判断，决定是将托儿服务外包出去，还是留给自己；例如，他们借钱来支付短期成本可能是有意义的。

The question for policymakers is how much parental behaviour does reflect actual preferences and how much it is driven by constraints.

政策制定者面临的问题是，父母的行为在多大程度上反映了实际的偏好，在多大程度上受到限制的驱动。

If preferences are pulling women away from work, then government intervention to subsidise child care could just end up helping richer parents who would have paid anyway.

如果偏好让女性远离工作岗位，那么政府对儿童保育补贴的干预可能最终只会帮助更富有的父母，而这些父母无论如何都会付钱的。

Some data point in this direction.

一些数据指向这个方向。

Three- and four-year-olds are eligible for 15 hours of state-funded child care, as well as another 15 hours when their parents work full-time.

三、四岁的孩子可以享受15小时的公立托儿服务，如果他们的父母全职工作，还可以享受另外15小时的照顾。

But around half of toddlers do not use their full entitlement.

但大约一半的幼儿没有使用他们的全部应得权利。