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Grandparental Availability for Child Care and Maternal Employment: Pension Reform Evidence from Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Massimiliano Bratti

    (Università degli Studi di Milano, IZA and Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano)

  • Tommaso Frattini

    (Università degli Studi di Milano, CReAM, IZA, Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano and Dondena)

  • Francesco Scervini

    (HDCP, Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia)

Abstract

In this paper, we exploit pension reform-induced changes in retirement eligibility requirements to assess the role of grandparental child care availability in the employment of women who have children under 15. We focus on Italy for two reasons: first, it has low rates of female employment and little formal child care provision, and second, it has undergone several pension reforms in a relatively short time span. Our analysis shows that, among the women studied, those whose own mothers are retirement eligible have a 13 percent higher probability of being employed than those whose mothers are ineligible. The pension eligibility of maternal grandfathers and paternal grandparents, however, has no significant effect on the women’s employment probability. We also demonstrate that the eligibility of maternal grandmothers mainly captures the effect of their availability for child care. Hence, pension reforms, by potentially robbing households of an important source of flexible, low-cost child care, could have unintended negative consequences for the employment rates of women with children.

Suggested Citation

  • Massimiliano Bratti & Tommaso Frattini & Francesco Scervini, 2016. "Grandparental Availability for Child Care and Maternal Employment: Pension Reform Evidence from Italy," Development Working Papers 391, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano, revised 07 May 2016.
  • Handle: RePEc:csl:devewp:391
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Grandparental child care; maternal employment; pension reform; retirement.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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