Research
Publications
Cuevas-Ruiz, P., Gimenez-Nadal, J. I., Manfredi, S., & Sevilla, A. (2025). A new model of parental time investments: A paradigm shift for addressing gender inequality in the labor market. Oxford Review of Economic Policy. PDF
Leite-Mariante, G., Manfredi, S., & Landais, C. (2025). Explaining variation in child penalties: The role of gender norms and policies. LSE Public Policy Review, 3(4). PDF
Working papers
Female Strategic Substantive Representation: Evidence from two Italian Radical Right Leaders [PDF]
Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of the engendering of Radical Right Parties (RRP) in Europe on female substantive representation, intended as increased discussion of women’s issues by female politicians. The paper contributes to the literature on political representation and political communication, using a large dataset and building a novel Italian dictionary for topic classification in Python to fill gaps in prior research. Using Facebook captions from leaders of two Italian radical right parties, the study challenges the assumption that more female politicians lead to more discussion of women’s issues. Surprisingly, no significant difference is found in the likelihood of Meloni discussing women’s issues compared to Salvini. However, during Salvini’s time in office, Meloni’s likelihood of posting about women’s issues increases, suggesting strategic behavior in response to political competition. This research introduces the concept of Strategic Substantive Representation, highlighting how female RRP politicians may strategically engage with these topics.
Work in progress
The Price of Settling Down (with Andrea Pop-Catalisan)
Abstract
Rising singlehood and a broader “relationship recession” are reshaping rich societies, with more adults leaving partnerships or avoiding them altogether. A common assumption is that, compared with singlehood, cohabiting relationships are unambiguously beneficial for well-being—economically, socially and emotionally. One underexplored possibility is that cohabitation carries invisible psychological and social costs, which vary with local norms and may gradually erode well-being and make separation more attractive. In this paper we study these potential “settlement costs” of cohabitation using repeated cross-sections from the European Social Survey and a pseudo–event-study design. We approximate within-person dynamics by comparing individuals at different durations since moving in with a partner, while controlling for observables and time-invariant regional factors. We trace how mental well-being, self-rated health, and time use evolve across the cohabitation spell and how these patterns differ across European normative regimes. We find little evidence of large, universal well-being gains from cohabitation. Instead, we document modest but systematic increases in negative affect, especially depressive symptoms, tiredness and feelings of strain, in more traditional or family-normative European regions, alongside region-specific shifts in socializing and leisure. Self-rated health is largely unaffected. These results suggest that cohabitation can entail small but persistent emotional and social costs in certain normative contexts, helping to explain why some individuals leave relationships even in the absence of major shocks, and nuancing the idea that cohabitation is a straightforwardly beneficial alternative to singlehood.- Paying for Equality (with Gaia Dossi and Marta Morando)
Abstract
This paper argues that workplace equality may have a transition cost when underrepresentation itself is costly. If minority workers value representation in the workplace, then segregated workplaces can arise even with neutral employers. Moving toward equality requires some minority workers to enter less representative workplaces before those workplaces become attractive to others. This creates a private cost for early movers and generates a role for compensation, coordination, or policies that reduce the cost of being underrepresented. Always Available: Measuring the Cognitive Load of Motherhood (with Camille Landais and Almudena Sevilla)
Abstract
The arrival of children generates large and persistent gender gaps in labour-market outcomes, yet the parental burden created by children is usually measured in minutes of care. We develop a diary-based framework for measuring cognitive load: the continuing responsibility, availability, and interruptibility associated with children beyond active childcare. Using American Time Use Survey diaries from 2010, 2012, and 2013, we study these measures around first birth. Mothers’ paid work falls by 125 minutes per day relative to fathers, while child-present time rises by 129 minutes. Only 44.5 percent of this responsibility gap is recorded as active childcare; the remaining 55.5 percent is embedded in other primary activities. The strongest asymmetry is unshared responsibility: mothers spend 55.5 percent of child-present time without the partner, compared with 33.2 percent for fathers. Mothers also experience substantially greater fragmentation of child-related responsibility throughout the day. These results show that motherhood changes not only how much care mothers provide, but also the cognitive demands and organization of the responsibility they carry.Parenting Under Scarcity: Parental Presence, Children’s Time, and the Persistence of Inequality
Abstract
How is economic disadvantage across generations reflected in children’s daily environments? I combine the Panel Study of Income Dynamics with the Child Development Supplement and Transition into Adulthood Supplement to link caregivers’ own childhood economic circumstances to minute-level time diaries for 3,330 children and to their later outcomes. The multigenerational structure allows me to distinguish disadvantage in the caregiver’s generation from poverty observed during the child’s own childhood, while the diaries separate the quantity of parental presence from the composition of children’s time. I find that disadvantaged parental origins are not associated with less parental presence: in the preferred specification, children with a poor-origin caregiver spend approximately 16 additional minutes per day with a parent present. This positive gradient is absent among poor-origin families whose children are never themselves observed poor, while larger parental-presence differences appear among children who experience poverty in their own generation. Finally, total parental presence is essentially unrelated to childhood cognition and later educational attainment, whereas whole-day human-capital-oriented activity is positively associated with both outcomes. The results show that intergenerational disadvantage is reflected not simply in how much time children spend with parents, but in the broader organization and composition of children’s daily environments.