Assistant Professor of Economics Christine Ho studies, evaluates and designs family-focused policies such as childcare subsidies. Assistant Prof Ho explained that governments may provide childcare subsidies to full-time working mothers to encourage economic self-sufficiency. In her paper entitled “Efficient Childcare Subsidies” which was co-authored with Professor Nicola Pavoni from Università Bocconi’s Department of Economics, Assistant Prof Ho discovered that in spite of the arguments on economic self-sufficiency and childcare quality, it would still be efficient to have targeted subsidies for low to middle income working mothers with young children. Apart from formal childcare, grandparents could also play an important role in encouraging mothers to work, said Assistant Prof Ho. Indeed, she has found that grandparents are increasingly involved in providing childcare.