Talk in Cologne City Hall: Childcare Between Needs, Expectations, and Reality

MPIfG senior researcher Erik Neimanns recently gave a talk at Cologne’s City Hall as part of “Science in City Hall” series organized by the Cologne Science Forum. The September 7 event was opened by Cologne mayor Derya Karadag and attended by around thirty guests. In his talk, Neimanns presented a study coauthored with Antonella Faggin and funded by the German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research (DIFIS) on the difficulties of accessing nursery and after-school childcare in Germany. Their findings show that provision continues to fall short in many places, despite considerable efforts to broaden its scope. Especially families on a low income or with a lower level of education or a migration background tend to use daycare less because of a lack of places or for cost reasons. Neimanns also illustrated the extent of regional differences among Germany’s federal states and individual local authorities, making it clear that falling birth rates alone will not resolve existing inequalities in access to childcare. He explained why, despite existing legal entitlements, further reform is necessary if all children are to have the same opportunities for education and access. Neimanns has been a researcher at the MPIfG since 2021. He works on education and social policy, growth models, and macroeconomic policy.