Modelling child care services and subsidies

Child care is likely to continue to grow into the twenty-first century, and over the next few years the government is committed to continuing the growth in funded child care places. However, despite the increasing importance of child care, and the corresponding growth in expenditure on child care subsidies, an Australian microsimulation model of child care services and subsidies has never been developed. This paper describes how microsimulation methods have been applied to modelling Australian child care services and federal government subsidies.