An increase per child in the required child-to-staff ratio for infants is associated with a decrease in the cost of care from 9% to 20%, which translates to a reduction in the annual cost of child care from $850 to $1,890 $ for children. the average cost of care in the states.
It’s from Diana W. Thomas and Devon Gorry, “The Regulation and Cost of Child Care”, Mercatus Working Paper, August 2015. Diana tells me that it was published later, but that this working paper contains the essence of their conclusions.
It is enormous. Allowing only one more child per caregiver would significantly reduce the cost of childcare.
If I had known about this study when I was struggle a proposed new property tax to pay for childcare costs, that would have strengthened my argument.