The labour market participation of “ sandwich generation ” Italian women ∗

This article empirically examines the labour market participation of Italian women, with special emphasis on the role of intergenerational family links. Elderly relatives may play an important role in explaining the work patterns of women. First, they discourage the work participation of women by requiring unpaid help; secondly, they also provide household services such as child care, favouring the supply of labour by women. To capture the dual role of elderly relatives, using data from the Bank of Italy’s 2000 Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW 2000) we estimate a bivariate probit model where the two decisions to be in the labour force and to use informal help from the enlarged family are jointly determined. Our estimates show that informal care for the elderly decreases labour market participation, and that unpaid help provided by elderly relatives increases the probability of being engaged in paid work.