Formal and Informal Childcare in Italy and Its Regions

Giuseppe Gabrielli, Università di Bari
Gianpiero Dalla Zuanna, University of Padua

Childcare arrangements are the mixed result of couples’ preferences, resources and constrains. Couples must first decide between a “traditional” model (man as breadwinner and woman as housewife) and a dual-earner model. Dual-earners must then choose between formal (principally kindergarten) and informal (mainly grandparents) childcare; the latter of the two is quite diffused in Mediterranean European countries. Our paper aims to investigate childcare arrangements in Italy and this two-phase decisional pattern using a Heckman procedure and taking into account territorial differences. The results emphasize the economic rationality of informal childcare in Italy.