##manager.scheduler.building##: Velodromo - Bocconi University
##manager.scheduler.room##: N02
Date: 2019-01-25 09:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Last modified: 2018-12-26
Abstract
Grandparental childcare is known to facilitate young parents’ participation in the labour market, however its relationship with grandparents’ own labour supply is understudied. I use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to investigate the relationship between regular grandchild care provision and two employment outcomes among grandmothers and grandfathers aged 50–69: the probability of working, and, among those who work, the average weekly working hours. I adopt a recursive bivariate modelling approach to limit biases arising from selection on unobservable grandparental characteristics. The results indicate that grandmothers who regularly look after young grandchildren are no less likely to work, but have lower average working hours if employed. By contrast, grandfathers providing regular grandchild care are significantly less likely to work, but show no difference in working hours. Interestingly, for both sexes, the conflict between grandchild care and labour supply is only manifested among lower-educated grandparents.