IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jopoec/v36y2023i3d10.1007_s00148-023-00936-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Child care costs, household liquidity constraints, and gender inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandra Casarico

    (Bocconi University
    Dondena Research Center
    CESIfo)

  • Elena Del Rey

    (University of Girona)

  • Jose I. Silva

    (University of Girona
    University of Kent)

Abstract

In a model with endogenous female labour supply and wages, we show that liquidity constraints that prevent households from buying child care generate an inefficiency and amplify gender gaps in the labour market. We evaluate the relative merits of paid maternity leave, child care subsidies, and government loans in mitigating liquidity constraints and promoting gender equality. While an extension in the duration of the leave has ambiguous effects, child care subsidies and loans in the form of child care vouchers remove the liquidity constraints and reduce gender gaps in participation and wages. We illustrate the mechanisms at play in a numerical example using Spanish data.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandra Casarico & Elena Del Rey & Jose I. Silva, 2023. "Child care costs, household liquidity constraints, and gender inequality," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1461-1487, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:36:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s00148-023-00936-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-023-00936-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00148-023-00936-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00148-023-00936-2?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. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2017. "The Economic Consequences of Family Policies: Lessons from a Century of Legislation in High-Income Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 205-230, Winter.
    2. Mark Colas & Sebastian Findeisen & Dominik Sachs, 2021. "Optimal Need-Based Financial Aid," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(2), pages 492-533.
    3. Bruce Chapman & Tim Higgins, 2009. "Income Contingent Loans for Paid Parental Leave," CEPR Discussion Papers 596, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    4. Britton, Jack & van der Erve, Laura & Higgins, Tim, 2019. "Income contingent student loan design: Lessons from around the world," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 65-82.
    5. Barr, Nicholas & Chapman, Bruce & Dearden, Lorraine & Dynarski, Susan, 2019. "The US college loans system: Lessons from Australia and England," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 32-48.
    6. Alessandra Casarico & Salvatore Lattanzio, 2023. "Behind the child penalty: understanding what contributes to the labour market costs of motherhood," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1489-1511, July.
    7. Barigozzi, Francesca & Cremer, Helmuth & Roeder, Kerstin, 2018. "Women's career choices, social norms and child care policies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 162-173.
    8. Ratbek Dzhumashev & Ainura Tursunalieva, 2023. "Social externalities, endogenous childcare costs, and fertility choice," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 397-429, January.
    9. Nezih Guner & Remzi Kaygusuz & Gustavo Ventura, 2020. "Child-Related Transfers, Household Labour Supply, and Welfare," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 87(5), pages 2290-2321.
    10. Del Rey, Elena & Racionero, Maria & Silva, Jose I., 2017. "On the effect of parental leave duration on unemployment and wages," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 14-17.
    11. Annette Bergemann & Regina T. Riphahn, 2023. "Maternal employment effects of paid parental leave," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 139-178, January.
    12. Spencer Bastani & Tomer Blumkin & Luca Micheletto, 2019. "The Welfare-Enhancing Role of Parental Leave Mandates," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(1), pages 77-126.
    13. Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Straume, Odd Rune & Vagstad, Steinar, 2015. "Mommy tracks and public policy: On self-fulfilling prophecies and gender gaps in hiring and promotion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 540-554.
    14. Juan J. Dolado & Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa & Sara de La Rica, 2013. "On Gender Gaps And Self-Fulfilling Expectations: Alternative Implications Of Paid-For Training," Post-Print hal-01499641, HAL.
    15. Alicia Quinto & Laura Hospido & Carlos Sanz, 2021. "The child penalty: evidence from Spain," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 585-606, December.
    16. Alessandra Casarico & Luca Micheletto & Alessandro Sommacal, 2015. "Intergenerational transmission of skills during childhood and optimal public policy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(2), pages 353-372, April.
    17. Patricia Cortés & Jessica Pan, 2020. "Children and the Remaining Gender Gaps in the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 27980, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Spencer Bastani & Sören Blomquist & Luca Micheletto, 2020. "Child Care Subsidies, Quality, and Optimal Income Taxation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 1-37, November.
    19. Tim Higgins & Bruce Chapman, 2009. "An Income contingent Loan for Extending Paid Parental Leave," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 12(2), pages 197-216.
    20. Nikolay Angelov & Per Johansson & Erica Lindahl, 2016. "Parenthood and the Gender Gap in Pay," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(3), pages 545-579.
    21. Juan J. Dolado & Cecilia García-Peñalosa & Sara De La Rica, 2013. "On Gender Gaps And Self-Fulfilling Expectations: Alternative Implications Of Paid-For Training," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(3), pages 1829-1848, July.
    22. Bjerk, David & Han, Seungjin, 2007. "Assortative marriage and the effects of government homecare subsidy programs on gender wage and participation inequality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 1135-1150, June.
    23. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2017. "The Economic Consequences of Family Policies: Lessons from a Century of Legislation," Working Papers 811, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    24. Long, Ngo Van, 2019. "Financing higher education in an imperfect world," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 23-31.
    25. Marianne Bertrand, 2020. "Gender in the Twenty-First Century," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 1-24, May.
    26. Christine Ho & Nicola Pavoni, 2020. "Efficient Child Care Subsidies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(1), pages 162-199, January.
    27. Findeisen, Sebastian & Sachs, Dominik, 2016. "Education and optimal dynamic taxation: The role of income-contingent student loans," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 1-21.
    28. Elena Rey & Andreas Kyriacou & José I. Silva, 2021. "Maternity leave and female labor force participation: evidence from 159 countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 803-824, July.
    29. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2017. "The Economic Consequences of Family Policies: Lessons from a Century of Legislation in High-Income Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 205-230, Winter.
    30. Cortes, Patricia & Pan, Jessica, 2020. "Children and the Remaining Gender Gaps in the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 13759, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elena Del Rey & Maria Racionero & Jose I. Silva, 2023. "Employer vs Government Parental Leave: Labour Market Effects," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2023-692, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    2. Cervini, Maria & Silva, José I., 2023. "Childcare restrictions and gender gap in labor outcomes," MPRA Paper 118957, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Francesca Barigozzi & Helmuth Cremer & Emmanuel Thibault, 2023. "The Motherhood Wage and Income Traps," CESifo Working Paper Series 10380, CESifo.
    2. Alessandra Casarico & Salvatore Lattanzio, 2023. "Behind the child penalty: understanding what contributes to the labour market costs of motherhood," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1489-1511, July.
    3. Del Rey, Elena & Racionero, Maria & Silva, Jose I., 2021. "Labour market effects of reducing the gender gap in parental leave entitlements," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    4. Lara Lebedinski & Cristiano Perugini & Marko Vladisavljević, 2023. "Child penalty in Russia: evidence from an event study," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 173-215, March.
    5. Inés Berniell & Lucila Berniell & Dolores de la Mata & María Edo & Yarine Fawaz & Matilde P. Machado & Mariana Marchionni, 2020. "Motherhood and the Allocation of Talent," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0270, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    6. Martina Querejeta Rabosto & Estefanía Galván & Cecilia Parada & Soledad Salvador, 2021. "Gender Gaps and Family Policies in Latin America," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4509, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    7. Barigozzi, Francesca & Cremer, Helmuth & Roeder, Kerstin, 2020. "Having it all, for all: Child-care subsidies and income distribution reconciled," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 188-211.
    8. Hennig, Jan-Luca & Stadler, Balazs, 2021. "Firm-specific pay premiums and the gender wage gap in 21 European countries," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242354, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Céline Piton, 2022. "The labour market performance of vulnerable groups: towards a better understanding of the main driving forces," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/352519, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    10. Karademir, Sencer & Laliberté, Jean-William & Staubli, Stefan, 2023. "The Multigenerational Impact of Children and Childcare Policies," IZA Discussion Papers 15894, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Nieto, Adrián, 2021. "Native-immigrant differences in the effect of children on the gender pay gap," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 654-680.
    12. Elena Del Rey & Maria Racionero & Jose I. Silva, 2023. "Employer vs Government Parental Leave: Labour Market Effects," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2023-692, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    13. Turon, Hélène, 2022. "The Labour Supply of Mothers," IZA Discussion Papers 15312, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Sarah H. Bana & Kelly Bedard & Maya Rossin‐Slater, 2020. "The Impacts of Paid Family Leave Benefits: Regression Kink Evidence from California Administrative Data," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 888-929, September.
    15. Davide Dottori & Francesca Modena & Giulia Martina Tanzi, 2023. "Measuring peer effects in parental leaves: evidence from a reform," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1399, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    16. Oliwia Komada, 2023. "Raising America's future: search for optimal child-related transfers," GRAPE Working Papers 84, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    17. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2023. "Scientific Background to the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2023-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    18. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2021. "Does Biology Drive Child Penalties? Evidence from Biological and Adoptive Families," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 183-198, June.
    19. Berniell, Inés & Berniell, Lucila & de la Mata, Dolores & Edo, María & Marchionni, Mariana, 2023. "Motherhood and flexible jobs: Evidence from Latin American countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    20. Jan‐luca Hennig & Balazs Stadler, 2023. "Firm‐specific pay premiums and the gender wage gap in Europe," Post-Print hal-04171877, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Liquidity constraints; Gender wage and participation gaps; Statistical discrimination; Numerical example;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:jopoec:v:36:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s00148-023-00936-2. 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.