An empirical analysis of women’s working time, and an estimation of female labour supply in Italy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1973-2201/3642Abstract
Empirical studies show that misspecification of the married (or cohabiting) women’s labour supply equation may produce inefficient wage-elasticity estimates. In order to reduce the variability of these estimates, we suggest a new approach based on instrumental variables given by the economic value of the domestic unpaid-work of women. Using Italian micro-data on time use (ISTAT Survey on Time Use), and applying both a parametric and a semiparametric procedure, we estimate robust wage-elasticity coefficients of married women’s labour supply. Our results suggest that women’s labour supply is negatively influenced by the indirect cost of their informal activity of childcare and domestic work.References
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