Barigozzi, Francesca, Cremer, Helmuth and Monfardini, Chiara (2019) The gender gap in informal child care: theory and some evidence from Italy. Economia Italiana, 3. pp. 63-98.

This is the latest version of this item.

[thumbnail of wp_tse_1015.pdf]
Preview
Text
Download (365kB) | Preview

Abstract

Our model studies couples. time allocation and career choices, which are a¤ected 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.

Item Type: Article
Language: English
Date: 2019
Refereed: Yes
Subjects: B- ECONOMIE ET FINANCE
Divisions: TSE-R (Toulouse)
Site: UT1
Date Deposited: 23 Sep 2019 09:21
Last Modified: 27 Oct 2021 13:37
OAI Identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:123543
URI: https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/32780

Available Versions of this Item

View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year