Can you do the dishes? Intra-household time use, labor supply and fertility

Andrea Mattia ()
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Andrea Mattia: Bank of Italy

No 1534, Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: Women everywhere do more housework (including childcare) than men, which can negatively affect fertility rates and women's careers. We argue that rebalancing the housework load increases female employment and men's opportunity cost of children: only if outsourcing childcare is possible, fertility also increases. Using Italian data, we estimate a life-cycle model of housework, employment and fertility, with a limited availability of nursery schools. To match time-use moments, men's weight in housework production should be 30% of women's, even taking into account labor market gaps, perceived housework skills, and preferences. Housework imbalance has a similar effect on employment to an additional 50% gender wage gap, and accounts for 70% of the child penalty. Removing all constraints, fertility increases to 2.28 (+63%) children per woman and female employment to 0.97 (+40%, mostly driven by housework). The model replicates the negative correlation between fertility and female employment in Southern Italy, the positive correlation in the North, and historical trends.

Keywords: fertility; female labor supply; intra-household time use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 J13 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06
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