Childcare may affect the earnings of mothers, not just by enabling them to take employment while using it, but also by conserving
human capital and increasing earnings at later stages of the mother's life. This paper simulates the lifetime earnings of a 'typical'
British mother under a variety of childcare regimes. Childcare which continues into the years of schooling is particularly valuable.
For a woman who changes her labour force participation behaviour as a result of the availability of childcare, the resources
generated are shown to exceed the resource costs of the childcare, and the revenue gain to the exchequer may exceed the costs of
100 per cent subsidy.
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