IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/reveho/v22y2024i3d10.1007_s11150-023-09675-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Grandparents and parental labor supply during the COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Jiyoon Kwon

    (University of Chicago)

Abstract

This study examines whether and to what extent the availability of grandparents in the home plays a buffering role in the labor supply of parents of children aged 0–5 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of grandparents as a childcare resource and its association with parents’ labor supply have received increasing attention in the literature. Limited childcare options during the pandemic underscore the need to investigate how working parents manage the double burden of family and work and what role grandparents could play. I use monthly data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) from January to May 2019 and 2020. Using a propensity score matching method, parents in three-generational households were matched to those in two-generational households. Then, I employ a difference-in-differences approach with propensity score-matched samples. Results show that parents living with grandparents are more likely to have worked last week and worked longer during the pandemic relative to parents in a two-generational household. The effects of the availability of coresident grandparents are more pronounced among single and low-educated parents than their counterparts. Furthermore, mothers and fathers show heterogeneous responses to the presence of grandparents during the pandemic. In conclusion, results highlight that grandparents played a buffering role in mitigating the adverse impact of the pandemic on parental labor supply. This study sheds light on the importance of grandparental care specifically and informal care and home-based care in general. It also provides policy implications for strengthening the childcare system.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Jiyoon Kwon, 2024. "Grandparents and parental labor supply during the COVID-19 pandemic," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 935-964, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:22:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s11150-023-09675-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11150-023-09675-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11150-023-09675-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11150-023-09675-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wolfgang Frimmel & Martin Halla & Bernhard Schmidpeter & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2022. "Grandmothers’ Labor Supply," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(5), pages 1645-1689.
    2. Chris M. Herbst, 2017. "Universal Child Care, Maternal Employment, and Children’s Long-Run Outcomes: Evidence from the US Lanham Act of 1940," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(2), pages 519-564.
    3. Andrew Cherlin & Erin Cumberworth & S. Philip Morgan & Christopher Wimer, 2013. "The Effects of the Great Recession on Family Structure and Fertility," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 650(1), pages 214-231, November.
    4. Christine Ho, 2015. "Grandchild care, intergenerational transfers, and grandparents’ labor supply," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 359-384, June.
    5. Rupert, Peter & Zanella, Giulio, 2018. "Grandchildren and their grandparents' labor supply," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 89-103.
    6. Natasha V. Pilkauskas & Mariana Amorim & Rachel E. Dunifon, 2020. "Historical Trends in Children Living in Multigenerational Households in the United States: 1870–2018," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2269-2296, December.
    7. Rajeev H. Dehejia & Sadek Wahba, 2002. "Propensity Score-Matching Methods For Nonexperimental Causal Studies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 151-161, February.
    8. Shelly Lundberg & Robert A. Pollak & Jenna Stearns, 2016. "Family Inequality: Diverging Patterns in Marriage, Cohabitation, and Childbearing," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 79-102, Spring.
    9. Misty L. Heggeness, 2020. "Estimating the immediate impact of the COVID-19 shock on parental attachment to the labor market and the double bind of mothers," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1053-1078, December.
    10. Richard J. Petts & Daniel L. Carlson & Joanna R. Pepin, 2021. "A gendered pandemic: Childcare, homeschooling, and parents' employment during COVID‐19," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S2), pages 515-534, July.
    11. Natasha V. Pilkauskas & Christina Cross, 2018. "Beyond the Nuclear Family: Trends in Children Living in Shared Households," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2283-2297, December.
    12. Taryn W. Morrissey, 2017. "Child care and parent labor force participation: a review of the research literature," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, March.
    13. Backhaus, Andreas & Barslund, Mikkel, 2021. "The effect of grandchildren on grandparental labor supply: Evidence from Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    14. Ai, Chunrong & Norton, Edward C., 2003. "Interaction terms in logit and probit models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 123-129, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kwon, Sarah Jiyoon, 2023. "Grandparents and Parental Labor Supply during COVID-19 Pandemic," OSF Preprints jxyvn, Center for Open Science.
    2. Gema Zamarro, 2020. "Family labor participation and child care decisions: the role of grannies," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 287-312, September.
    3. Barschkett, Mara & Spieß, C. Katharina & Ziege, Elena, 2021. "Does Grandparenting Pay off for the Next Generations? Intergenerational Effects of Grandparental Care," IZA Discussion Papers 14795, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Backhaus, Andreas & Barslund, Mikkel, 2021. "The effect of grandchildren on grandparental labor supply: Evidence from Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Lin, Mengyun & Wang, Qing, 2019. "Center-based childcare expansion and grandparents' employment and well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    6. Leimer, Birgit & van Ewijk, Reyn, 2022. "Are grandchildren good for you? Well-being and health effects of becoming a grandparent," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    7. Cuong Viet Nguyen & Finn Tarp, 2023. "Cash Transfers and Labor Supply: New Evidence on Impacts and Mechanisms," DERG working paper series 23-18, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Development Economics Research Group (DERG).
    8. Daniela Boca & Daniela Piazzalunga & Chiara Pronzato, 2018. "The role of grandparenting in early childcare and child outcomes," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 477-512, June.
    9. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Kuehnle, Daniel & Riphahn, Regina T., 2018. "Paid parental leave and families’ living arrangements," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 182-197.
    10. Massimiliano Bratti & Tommaso Frattini & Francesco Scervini, 2018. "Grandparental availability for child care and maternal labor force participation: pension reform evidence from Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 1239-1277, October.
    11. Irfan Kanat & Yili Hong & T. S. Raghu, 2018. "Surviving in Global Online Labor Markets for IT Services: A Geo-Economic Analysis," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 893-909, December.
    12. Peter Eibich & Xianhua Zai, 2024. "Are the grandparents alright? The health consequences of grandparental childcare provision," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(4), pages 1-32, December.
    13. Rupert, Peter & Zanella, Giulio, 2018. "Grandchildren and their grandparents' labor supply," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 89-103.
    14. Barschkett, Mara & Spieß, C. Katharina & Ziege, Elena, 2021. "Intergenerational Effects of Grandparental Care on Children and Parents," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242397, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    15. Daniel Aaronson & Rajeev Dehejia & Andrew Jordan & Cristian Pop-Eleches & Cyrus Samii & Karl Schulze, 2021. "The Effect of Fertility on Mothers’ Labor Supply over the Last Two Centuries [Semiparametric instrumental variables estimation of treatment response models]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(633), pages 1-32.
    16. Doepke, Matthias & Hannusch, Anne & Kindermann, Fabian & Tertilt, Michèle, 2022. "The Economics of Fertility: A New Era," IZA Discussion Papers 15224, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Constantin Mang, 2016. "Market Consequences of ICT Innovations," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 70.
    18. Mizuki Komura & Hikaru Ogawa, 2022. "COVID-19, marriage, and divorce in Japan," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 831-853, September.
    19. Gloria Moroni, 2018. "Explaining Divorce Gaps in Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills of Children," Discussion Papers 18/16, Department of Economics, University of York.
    20. Vargas Da Cruz,Marcio Jose, 2014. "Do export promotion agencies promote new exporters ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7004, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:22:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s11150-023-09675-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.