A one-infant increase in the child–staff ratio requirement for infants is associated with a decrease in the cost of care of between 9 percent and 20 percent, which translates into a reduction in the annual cost of child care of between $850 and $1,890 for the average cost of care across states.
This is from Diana W. Thomas and Devon Gorry, “Regulation and the Cost of Child Care,” Mercatus Working Paper, August 2015. Diana tells me that it was later published but that this working paper contains the essence of their findings.
This is huge. Allowing just one more infant per care giver would dramatically reduce the cost of child care.
If I had known about this study when I was fighting a proposed new property tax to pay for child care, it would have strengthened my argument.