托育服务生育效应的国际经验与中国政策选择

International Experiences of the Fertility Effect of Childcare Services and China's Policy Choice

从可及性、成本和质量三个维度考察了托育服务生育效应的国际经验以及当前中国托育服务发展过程中存在的问题。基于OECD国家家庭数据库数据的研究发现,增加托育服务可及性、降低服务成本、提升服务质量都有助于提高生育率,其中的机制主要在于母亲育儿时间成本的市场化,托育服务可及性的提高、成本的降低以及家庭对服务质量的强烈偏好都会增加家庭对托育服务的需求,进而促进生育。我国托育服务的发展当前正面临着供需失衡、价格高昂以及质量缺乏保障等诸多问题,非常不利于托育服务生育促进效应的发挥。因此,当务之急是通过多种途径增加托育服务供给、降低服务成本并提高服务质量,以促进其生育效应的发挥。

The international experience of the fertility effect of childcare services and the existing problems in the development of childcare services in China are examined from three dimensions including accessibility,cost and quality.Based on data from the OECD Family Database,it is found that increasing the accessibility,reducing the cost and improving the quality of childcare services can help promote fertility.And the mechanism is that the marketization of the cost of mothers'childcare time,the improvement of accessibility,the reduction of cost and the strong preference of families for the quality of childcare services can increase families demand for childcare services,thus promoting fertility.However,China's childcare service is facing many problems such as imbalance of supply and demand,high price and lack of quality guarantee,which are not conducive to the fertility promotion effect of childcare services.Therefore,it is urgent to increase the supply of childcare services,reduce the service cost and improve the service quality so as to promote its fertility effect.