Cost Functions, Efficiency, and Quality in Day Care Centers
利用新数据集发现非营利与营利性日托中心在质量上无差异，效率上除部分非营利机构外也无差异；将质量从中等提升至良好需每儿童小时12至16美分；劳动力需求缺乏弹性，不同教育水平工人间存在替代与互补关系；生产中存在规模经济与范围经济。
Using a new data set, this paper finds that there is no quality difference between nonprofit and for-profit day care centers, and with the exception of one segment of the nonprofit sector, there is no efficiency difference. The cost of increasing the quality from mediocre to good is between 12 and 16 cents per child-hour. Centers have inelastic demand for workers. Child care workers with 13 to 15 years of education and workers with more than 16 years of education are substitutes; workers with more than 16 years of education are complements to workers with 12 or fewer years of education. There are economies of scale and scope in production.