The gender gap in informal child care: theory and some evidence from Italy

Helmuth Cremer, Francesca Barigozzi and Chiara Monfardini

No 13782, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Our model studies couples' time allocation and career choices, which are affected by a social norm on gender roles in the family. Parents can provide two types of informal child care: basic care (feeding, changing children, baby-sitting) and quality care (activities that stimulate children's social and cognitive skills). We obtain the following main results. Traditional mothers provide some informal basic care, whereas career mothers purchase full time formal basic care in the market. Informal basic care is too large and the group of career mothers is too small because of the social norm. Informal quality care is increasing in the couple's income and is provided in larger amount by mothers. We test the model's predictions for Italy using the most recent ISTAT "Use of Time" survey. In line with the model, mothers devote more time than fathers to both basic and quality informal care; more educated parents devote more time to quality informal care than less educated parents; more educated mothers spend more time in the labor market than less educated mothers.

Keywords: Social norms; Basic and quality child care; Women's career choices; Gender gaps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 H23 J16 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-gen and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Gender Gap in Informal Child Care: Theory and Some Evidence from Italy (2019)
Working Paper: The gender gap in informal child care: theory and some evidence from Italy (2019)
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