Expansion of childcare in Upper Austria
On behalf of Neos Lab, EcoAustria analyzed the expansion of childcare in Upper Austria in terms of costs and benefits for the province and its regional economic performance. Specifically, three different scenarios were simulated.
In the first scenario (1a), an increase in childcare for children up to the age of 3 to the level of the Austrian average was simulated, which corresponds to an increase in the childcare rate of 9 percentage points or 4,040 additional children. The additional costs in this scenario amount to EUR 64 to 69 million. In scenario 1b, an increase in the childcare rate to the Barcelona target of 33% was assumed. In this case, there would be an increase of 5,430 additional children in care and additional costs of around 90 million euros. Finally, scenario 2 simulates the extension of the opening hours of childcare facilities by one hour, which would entail additional costs of EUR 18 million due to the shorter opening hours in Upper Austria compared to the Austrian average.
The results show that a combination of scenario 1b and scenario 2 would significantly improve childcare in Upper Austria, but would entail additional costs of around EUR 111 million. Thanks to the childcare offensive adopted in the autumn, these costs could be largely covered by the federal government's Future Fund, which would reduce the actual increase in costs for Upper Austria to only around EUR 27 million.
Improved childcare would have a direct economic benefit, particularly through increased labor market participation of parents - especially women. Depending on the scenario, employment could increase by 1,300 to 1,700 people, resulting in a positive net fiscal effect of EUR 44 to 63 million. In addition, expenditure on social benefits would fall by EUR 10 to 17 million and private household consumption would increase by EUR 64 to 91 million due to higher incomes. The increased market income would lead to an estimated increase in Upper Austria's gross regional product of EUR 68 to 99 million, with a value of EUR 86 million being achieved in scenario 2.
