Female labour participation with concurrent demographic processes: An estimation for Italy

This paper sets out to measure the “true” influence of partnering and fertility decisions on women’s participation in the labour market in Italy in 2002. Our model is rather complex, because we consider several demographic processes, all of which are potentially affected by endogeneity. Secondly, we use a cross sectional data source with retrospective questions, which calls into question two additional issues: selectivity and treatment effects. After a quick look at the main issues at stake and the solutions offered by the relevant literature, we introduce and discuss our model. We show that female labour force participation depends on age, education, family characteristics and, not less importantly, institutional setting.