Cash‑for‑Care Trade‑off

Replacing institutionally provided childcare with direct cash transfers changes incentives for work, care choices, and quality oversight. It can reduce administrative intermediaries and some corruption vectors but risks reinforcing home‑care gender norms, lowering care quality, and shifting costs onto informal family networks. — Understanding this trade‑off matters for debates on welfare design, gender equality, labor participation, and anti‑fraud policy because delivery mode (service vs cash) produces systematically different social and political outcomes.