This paper provides a micro-econometric evaluation of the effects of child care rationing on the household expenditures on child care and on the female participation decision in Italy. A sample of households is used with at least one pre-school child, selected from the Bank of Italy Survey of...

Economic models of household behavior typically yield the prediction that increases in schooling levels and wage rates of married women lead to increases in their labor supply and reductions in fertility. In Italy, as well as in other Southern European countries, low labor market participation...