Webinar: The Economics of Migration (Junior Seminar)

Date & Time: May 17, 2021 - 17h30 (CET)

Speakers: Rama D. Mariani (University of Rome, Tor Vergata and CEIS)

Register here (Zoom)

Topic: Immigrant Supply of Marketable Child Care and Native Fertility in Italy

Abstract:

The availability of child-care services has often been advocated as one of the instruments to counter the fertility decline observed in many high-income countries. In the recent past large inflows of low-skilled migrants have substantially increased the supply of child-care services. In this paper we examine if immigration as actually affected fertility exploiting the natural experiment occurred in Italy in 2007, when a large inflow of migrants – many of them specialized in the supply of child care – arrived unexpectedly. With a difference-in-differences method, we show that immigrant female workers have increased native births by a number that ranges roughly from 2 to 4 per cent. We validate our result by the implementation of an instrumental variable approach and several robustness tests, all concluding that the increase in the supply of child-care services by immigrant women has positively affected native fertility.

About the seminar series:
This is a joint initiative of LISER's Crossing Borders research programme, CERDI, PSE,the University of Luxembourg and Universidad Carlos III. Its objective is to propose an opportunity to migration scholars for exchanging under the current exceptional circumstances.
Senior Seminars are held on Wednesdays at 17h30 CET.
Junior Seminars are held on Mondays at 17h30 CET
To learn more and view all Seminars click here