Grandparental availability for child care and maternal labor force participation: Pension reform evidence from Italy

Arbeitspapier

In this paper, we exploit pension reform-induced changes in retirement eligibility requirements to assess the role of grandparental child care availability in the labor force participation of women with 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 11 percent higher probability of being in the labor force than those whose mothers are ineligible. The pension eligibility of maternal grandfathers and paternal grandparents, however, has no significant effect on the women’s labor force participation. 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.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-92-79-68016-8
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance ; No. 2017/3

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply
• Subject: grandparental child care ; maternal employment ; pension reform ; retirement

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bratti, Massimiliano ; Frattini, Tommaso ; Scervini, Francesco
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Publications Office of the European Union
• (where): Luxembourg
• (when): 2017

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.2760/32206
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/202281
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET