Italy is characterized by a family-oriented value system meaning that family holds the main responsibility for the support and welfare of its members. One consequence is that women are more likely to contribute large amounts of unpaid care labour than in many other countries in Europe, producing a gender gap in hours spent working. Previous studies have found that women’s unpaid working time is especially affected by the birth of a child. However, these studies have rarely taken into account the influence of the bargaining process that occurs between the couple regarding allocation of care work when they have children. Moreover, in previous studies, methods used to control for endogeneity of fertility present several shortcomings.
To address this gap, Maria Gabriella Campolo and Antonino Di Pino of the University of Messina and Ester Lucia Rizzi of the Université Catholique de Louvain use longitudinal data on married or cohabiting couples provided by the Italian panel survey of the Generation and Gender Program (GGP). Using respondents’ answers to questions about gender and family attitudes, they classify couples into two groups: “traditional” couples, who agree with traditional attitudes regarding gender roles and the family, and “modern” couples, who disagree with traditional norms.
As to the methodology adopted, the study offers substantial advancements in the field. A simultaneous equation approach allowed the authors to ensure that any sources of correlation among partners’ paid and unpaid labour were excluded from the estimates of parenthood effect. Additionally, the authors provide a new approach to correct the estimates for the endogenous choices of fertility, by adopting a Difference-in-Differences (DID) based estimator.
Their results echo previous studies: they find that the birth of a child results in a significant increase in women’s unpaid labour and a decrease in paid labour, while men’s work is mostly unaffected. However, women’s overall workload increases more for traditional couples than for modern couples. The authors’ findings reflect the importance of considering endogeneity of fertility, the bargaining process between partners, and the attitudes they hold when engaging in that process.