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With Strings Attached: Grandparent-Provided Child care, Fertility, and Female Labor Market Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Eva Garcia-Moran

    (The Center for Economic and Political Research on Aging , University of Lugano)

  • Zoe Kuehn

    (Departmento de Economia Cuantitativa, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.)

Abstract

Grandparents are regular providers of free child care. Similar to any other form of child care, availability of grandparent-provided child care affects fertility and labor market decisions of women positively. We find that women in Germany, residing close to parents or in-laws are more likely to have children and that as mothers they are more likely to hold a regular part-or fulltime job. However, different from any other type of child care, for individuals to enjoy grandparent-provided child care on a regular basis, residence choices must coincide with those of parents or in-laws. Thus while living close provides access to free child care, it imposes costly spatial restrictions. We find that hourly wages of mothers residing close to parents or in-laws are lower compared to those residing further away, and having relatives taking care of ones' children increases the probability of having to commute. We build a general equilibrium model of residence choice, fertility decisions, and female labor force participation that can account for the relationships between grandparent-provided child care, fertility and female labor market outcomes. We simulate our model to analyze how women's decisions on residence, fertility, and labor force participation change under distinct scenarios regarding availability of grandparent provided childcare and different family policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Eva Garcia-Moran & Zoe Kuehn, 2012. "With Strings Attached: Grandparent-Provided Child care, Fertility, and Female Labor Market Outcomes," CEPRA working paper 1202, USI Università della Svizzera italiana.
    • Handle: RePEc:lug:wcepra:1202
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Padula, Mario & Battistin, Erich & De Nadai, Michele, 2014. "Roadblocks on the Road to Grandma's House: Fertility Consequences of Delayed Retirement," CEPR Discussion Papers 9945, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Bruno Arpino & Chiara D. Pronzato & Lara P. Tavares, 2012. "Mothers’ labour market participation: Do grandparents make it easier?," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 277, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    3. Luca Crivelli & Paola Salari, 2012. "Fiscal federalism and income redistribution through healthcare financing: An empirical analysis for the Swiss cantons," CEPRA working paper 1204, USI Università della Svizzera italiana.
    4. Haiyue Yu & Jin Cao & Shulong Kang, 2023. "Fertility cost, grandparental childcare, and female employment," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 1067-1104, March.
    5. Del Boca, Daniela & Piazzalunga, Daniela & Pronzato, Chiara D., 2014. "Early Child Care and Child Outcomes: The Role of Grandparents," IZA Discussion Papers 8565, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Ke Shen & Ping Yan & Yi Zeng, 2016. "Coresidence with elderly parents and female labor supply in China," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(23), pages 645-670.
    7. Daniela Del Boca, 2015. "Child Care Arrangements and Labor Supply," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 88074, Inter-American Development Bank.
    8. Daniela Del Boca & Daniela Piazzalunga & Chiara Daniela Pronzato, 2014. "Early child care and child outcomes: the role of grandparents. Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study," CHILD Working Papers Series 24, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    9. Bruno Arpino & Chiara Pronzato & Lara Tavares, 2014. "The Effect of Grandparental Support on Mothers’ Labour Market Participation: An Instrumental Variable Approach," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 30(4), pages 369-390, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    informal child care; fertility; labor force participation; spatial restrictions; regional labor markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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