Retirement of the Male Partner and the Housework Division in the Italian Couples: Estimation of the Causal Effects

The estimation of the effect of retirement of one of the partners on the couple’s labour division may suffers of lack of robustness as a consequence of misspecification of the latent bargaining process between partners. In this study, using Italian Time Use data, we provide a correction of the effect of the latent influence of bargaining on estimates. In particular, the woman’s perception of equity in labour division, assumed as a relevant proxy of bargaining, is here adopted to correct the estimates of the causal effects of retirement of the male partner on the time devoted to housework by both partners.