One billion euro programme for early childcare services in Italy

In 2007 the Italian central government started a programme by transferring funds to regional governments to develop both private and public early childcare services. Exploiting the different timing of programme implementation across regions, we evaluate its effectiveness in boosting the public supply of early childhood educational services. We find that the ratio between the available slots in public early childhood education and the population aged 0–2 increased by 18% 3 years after the start of the programme, with respect to the pre-programme level. The programme impact was, however, limited in the South and mostly driven by the Center-North.