Abstract
Grandparents, and in particular grandmothers, are an important source of informal child care for their grandchildren in most developed countries. The literature shows how these informal transfers of care can help promote female labor participation. However, less is known about how working-age grandmothers are combining care with their own labor participation. In this paper, I use data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe and analyze to what extent child care is provided by grandmothers in ten European countries and how grandmothers are combining this task with paid work. I also revisit the question of whether the child care provided by grandmothers is encouraging the labor participation of their offspring. The empirical approach takes into account the simultaneity of labor market decisions and caregiving activities while controlling for grandmother’s unobserved heterogeneity on their willingness to provide care to their grandchildren. I find a negative and significant effect of participating in the labor market on the probability of taking care of the grandchildren on a regular basis. I also find evidence that, for some countries, the child care provided by working-age grandmothers has a positive effect on the labor participation of their daughters.
Highlights
The increase in the proportion of working women is one of the most significant longterm trends observed during the past half-century in labor markets across OECD countries
The empirical approach takes into account the simultaneity of labor market decisions and caregiving activities while controlling for grandmother’s unobserved heterogeneity on their willingness to provide care to their grandchildren
In line with recent work that used eligibility ages for retirement as external instruments for grandmothers’ labor participation, I use the information on eligibility for early retirement as an exclusion restriction to aid identification of the empirical model
Summary
The increase in the proportion of working women is one of the most significant longterm trends observed during the past half-century in labor markets across OECD countries. Even though female labor market participation has increased significantly across all OECD countries, not all countries show comparable levels. Grandmothers have become one of the primary providers of child care for children in Europe. This paper will help answer the key question of how and to what extent child care is provided by working-age grandmothers and how this task is combined with paid work in ten European countries. I find a negative and significant effect of participating in the labor market on the probability of working-age grandmothers of taking care of their grandchildren on a regular basis. I find evidence that, for some countries, the child care provided by grandmothers has a positive effect on the labor participation of their daughters.
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