Grandparental availability for child care and maternal labor force participation: pension reform evidence from Italy
利用意大利养老金改革导致的退休资格变化，研究发现母亲退休资格使有15岁以下孩子的女性劳动参与概率提高11%，而父亲和祖父母资格无显著影响，表明养老金改革可能因减少灵活低成本的育儿支持而意外抑制年轻母亲就业。
In this paper, we exploit pension reform-induced changes in retirement eligibility requirements to assess the role of grandparental childcare availability in the labor force participation of women with children under 15. Our analysis shows that, among the women studied, those whose own mothers are retirement eligible have a 11% higher probability of being in the labor force than those whose mothers are ineligible. The pension eligibility of maternal grandfathers and paternal grandparents, however, has no significant effect on the women’s labor force participation. We also demonstrate that the eligibility of maternal grandmothers mainly captures the effect of their availability for childcare. Hence, pension reforms, by potentially robbing households of an important source of flexible, low-cost childcare, could have unintended negative consequences for the employment rates of women with young children.