How Much Does a Child Cost Its Parents in Terms of Time in an Aged Society? An Estimate for Italy with Time Use Survey Data

The high cost of children in terms of time is usually considered an important factor associated with low fertility, but no previous study tries to estimate empirically how large is the time cost of children for their parents in Italy and which proportion of the cost is paid by the mothers. Using a sample of 4,827 couples – childless or with at least one child under 13 – from the Italian Time Use Survey (2002–2003), this chapter provides an estimate of the time cost of children in an aged society, such as Italy. In particular, it investigates how Italian couples’ time dedicated to childcare and unpaid and total work varies by presence, number, and age of children. The methodology is a loose adaptation of that used in microeconomics for the estimate of the monetary cost of children. OLS model results corroborate the hypothesis that Italian children are great time consumers. Ceteris paribus, parents’ workload increases by more than 3 h a day when there is a child under 3. Time costs increase with the number of children, albeit less than proportionally, and decrease with the age of the youngest child. Most of these costs are borne by women. The proportion of incremental child cost paid by women increases as the age of the youngest grows (up to 75%) but usually declines with the number of children. In no case women pay less than 58% of the child cost.