THE DEMAND FOR SCHOOL MEAL SERVICES BY SWISS HOUSEHOLDS*

In this paper we investigate the household demand for childcare during lunchtime at school using a stated preferences approach. Data are collected through phone‐structured interviews to 905 residents with children in the German‐speaking region of Switzerland during 2007. Poisson models with random and fixed effects are used to explore factors affecting the demand. Ordinal probit models are also considered as an alternative to count data models. The results show that price, household income, satisfaction with the current childcare service, family composition, and the area of residence significantly affect the number of weekly services demanded. We estimate that the willingness to pay for childcare during lunchtime is between 7.90 and 11.70 Swiss francs per day and does not depend on household income.