A Microeconometric Analysis of Female Labour Force Participation in Italy

Microlevel individual data for Italy from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (Rilevazione Trimestrale delle Forze di Lavoro) are used to undertake a microeconometric analysis of the factors affecting women’s labour force participation. The main research questions are: 1) does the availability of child care and elderly care raise female labour force participation?; 2) Does part-time employment represent a way for women to reconcile home and market work?; 3) Do women with larger families prefer part-time work? A number of factors emerge as important determinants of female labour force attachment. Institutional factors such as child care and elderly care availability, which are highly differentiated across the country, and local unemployment rates all affect female behaviour. A higher provision of child-care and elderly-care services and a lower unemployment rate are positively associated with female labour force participation. These three variables apparently account for the generally observed lower participation rate in central and southern Italian regions. However, given that public care services are measured at regional level, these effects might partly capture other regional influences. Part-time employment opportunities at local level appear to increase female labour force participation only for women with very young children.