Early childcare, child cognitive outcomes, and inequalities in the United Kingdom

Because of the growing participation of mothers in the labour market, a large number of children have been enrolled in childcare. In the last few years, an important literature has analysed the role of childcare in child development. The aim of this chapter is to explore the impact of childcare on child outcomes and its disparities, using the Millennium Cohort Survey (MCS) for the United Kingdom, which provides very detailed information on childcare and child outcomes. We first explore the association between formal childcare and child cognitive outcomes, allowing the effect of formal childcare to be different for children from different family backgrounds. Second, we simulate how an increase in formal childcare use can affect inequalities across children. Our results report that there is a significant association between childcare attendance and several child cognitive outcomes and that an increase in childcare attendance contributes to reduce inequalities across children

The Gender Wage Gap Among College Graduates in Italy

The paper investigates the gender wage gap among recently graduates, controlling for job and academic variables and for the field of study, as women lag behind in highly remunerative majors. The raw gender differential in hourly wages is 5.6%. Although including academic variables and the field of study\u2014on top of job-related variables\u2014slightly reduces the unexplained gap, the latter still accounts for most of the total difference. Using quantile decomposition, the paper shows that the unexplained gap increases along the wage distribution, indicating a glass ceiling effect. Heterogeneities arise among fields of study: the largest total gap emerges in Law, Political-Social sciences, and Economics-Statistics. In most disciplines, there is a significant unexplained gap\u2014from 3.3% (Medicine), to 8.7% (Law), up to 9.6% (Agriculture)\u2014which constitutes the largest share of the difference, confirming that most of the wage gap remains unexplained also by major. Finally, I use geographical differences to explore the influence of institutional and macro-economic variables, as well as of attitudes towards gender norms. The results indicate that childcare and part-time employment availability are correlated with lower gender wage gaps, while traditional gender norms are associated with higher differentials

Is There a Double-Negative Effect? Gender and Ethnic Wage Differentials in Italy

This paper investigates the gender and ethnic wage differentials for female migrants in Italy by applying the Oaxaca\u2013Blinder decomposition, with and without Heckman correction, to account for self\u2010selection into the labour market. The gender wage gap is nearly 15 per cent, more than 60 per cent of which is unexplained by observable differences. The ethnic wage gap is much larger (39 per cent), but endowments explain 53 per cent of the gap. We also estimate the double\u2010negative effect of being both female and a migrant. A female migrant earns 42 per cent less than an Italian male; the unexplained component is estimated to be 53\u201365 per cent. Results are robust to different specifications

The Gender Wage Gap among College Graduates in Italy

The paper investigates the gender wage gap among recently graduated people, controlling for job and academic variables and for the field of study, as women lag in highly remunerative majors. The raw gender gap in hourly wages is 5.6%. Although including academic variables and the field of study, on top of job-related variables, slightly reduces the unexplained gap, the latter still accounts for most of the total difference. Using quantile decomposition, the paper shows that the unexplained gap increases along the wage distribution, indicating a glass ceiling effect. Heterogeneities arise across fields of study: the largest total gap emerges in Law, Political-Social sciences, and Economics-Statistics. In most disciplines, there is a significant unexplained gap – from 3.3% (Medicine), to 8.7% (Law), up to 9.6% (Agriculture) – which constitutes the largest share of the difference, confirming that most of the wage gap remains unexplained also by major. Finally, I use geographical differences to explore the influence of institutional and macroeconomic variables, as well as of attitudes towards gender norms. Results indicate that childcare and part-time availability are correlated with lower gender wage gaps, while traditional gender norms are associated with higher gaps

Till Money Us Do Part: Property Division at Divorce and Married Couples’ Time Behaviour

This paper analyses the effects of different marital property regimes on the marriage-specific investments of the spouses. In particular, it provides an empirical assessment of the effects of a change from a separation property regime towards a more equal distribution of matrimonial assets on labour supply, housework time, and childcare, taking advantage of a decision by the English House of Lord in 2000. I use a difference-indifference approach, with individual fixed effects. Results show that married women reduced their labour supply by about 1.5-2.5 hours per week when the property regime is more favourable to them (slightly more if overtime is included). They didn’t change the number of hours devoted to housework, but the probability that they are mainly responsible for children increased by 5-9%. The results hide heterogeneities: as expected, the effects are significant for women in couples with higher level of assets and wealth (proxied by education), while no effect is found among low educated women

Early Child Care and Child Outcomes: the Role of Grandparents

In this paper, we focus on the impact of early grandparents’ care on child cognitive outcomes, in the short and medium term, using data from the Millennium Cohort Study (UK). Compared with children looked after in a formal care centre, children cared by grandparents (as well as parents) are better in naming objects, but worse in tests concerning basic concepts development, problem-solving, mathematical concepts and constructing ability. In order to assess a causal link between early care and child outcomes, we employ panel methods and instrumental variables techniques that confirm that grandparental care matters more for naming ability while formal care is more important for problem-solving ability and basic concepts development. These results hide strong heterogeneities: on the one hand, the positive association between grandparents’ care and child outcomes is stronger for children in more advantaged households; on the other hand, the negative association is significant only for children in more disadvantaged households