Does Regional Political Representation Affect the Provision of Childcare in Austria?

Historically the provision of childcare was one of the forgotten areas of Austrian family policy. During the last two decades, a lot of effort was made to catch up with other European countries, that mostly report higher childcare quotes and childcare expenditure rates. Even if the Austrian childcare quote is much higher today, than it has been ten years ago, there are still existing notable subnational differences between the regions and communities. Starting from this background, this contribution tries to explain the subnational disparities and raises the question: Which factors are influencing the provision of childcare in Austria? The concrete aspect the paper is focusing on is the link between the local political representation structure and the corresponding public childcare outcome. Literature suggests that a higher share of women in the political representation is associated with higher childcare rates, while a higher right-partisan majority is associated with lower childcare rates. These hypotheses are tested using time-series cross section analysis based on annually data for all 2096 Austrian ‘Gemeinden’. Starting from the year 2004 and reaching until 2018 the dataset includes the major period of public childcare expansion. This ensures to be able to analyse not only absolute differences between the communities but also the differences in expansion rates over time. First results show a very ambivalent picture. A higher share of women in the local governments comes along with higher childcare rates. At the same time female mayors are associated with lower rates. Further, the analysis reveals a positive correlation between ‘left-wing majorities’ and the corresponding childcare outcomes and significantly higher childcare rates in communities lead by mayors independent of party politics. These first results open the space for an interesting discussion about the impact of local representation structures and partisan politics on policy outcomes in Austria.