Gender, Age and the Use of Time during the Economic Crisis: Implications of the Economic Crisis on the Gender Contract and Informal Welfare of Italian Families

Is the economic crisis reducing time for paid work? How do Italians use their eventual forgone market-working hours? Is household production increasing its relevance as a market-substitute in times of economic hardship? Is the economic crisis affecting negatively gender equality and favouring a return of backward-looking gender contracts? This paper stems on Italian time use data for three years before, during and after the beginning of the economic hardship (2002/3, 2008/9 and 2013/4) to answer these questions. First, we estimate sex-specific age profiles of non-market production, consumption and transfers for the three years. With our results from the “non-market transfer accounts” we will try to assess whether and to what extent the financial crisis is increasing household production, affecting the directions of non-cash transfers as well as gender division of work. Then, we develop temporal analysis of life-course gender differences in time allocation to detailed activities with a particular focus on leisure inequality. Finally, information on subjective wellbeing and the perception of the use of time is used to complement our analysis of the equality of the gender contract.