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This article investigates whether changes in women’s and men’s contributions to household income in Germany and Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with changes in unpaid work. The current health crisis represents a unique opportunity to explore these topics, because the restrictive measures imposed during the lockdown are likely to have generated an unexpected shock to both domestic work and individual ability to contribute to household income. Using data from two novel datasets collected in Germany and Italy during the pandemic, this article shows that changes to both contribution to household income and unpaid activities during the crisis have been gendered, affecting women more negatively than men. In addition, we suggest that economic disturbances during the pandemic are associated with gendered changes in unpaid work that seem to be driven by changes in bargaining power in both countries. Our results also show some support for enhanced traditionalization of domestic life among German couples during the crisis, as predicted by gender display theories, albeit only regarding childcare. published

In this article, we present an application of the rolling cross-section (RCS) design to monitor changes in public opinion during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy (ResPOnsE Covid-19 project, University of Milan Statale). The RCS is a dynamic survey tool used predominantly in the analyses of public opinion during electoral campaigns. Because of its dynamic nature, we argue that it is an ideal instrument to monitor public opinion during a pandemic. Specifically, we present an RCS online survey implemented in Italy from April to July 2020 and we present some illustrative analyses of changes in behaviors, attitudes, and opinions during the Covid-19 crisis to highlight the potential of the design. Ultimately, we assert that RCS surveys could be very powerful instruments to inform policy makers of the dynamics of public opinion during a crisis, especially when inserted within existent high-quality survey infrastructures., Survey Research Methods, Vol 14 No 2 (2020): Survey Research Methods During the COVID-19 Crisis

The volume is the first to take a life-course approach to the study of domestic work in Italy. It provides a coherent and systemic overview of time spent on housework, childcare and adult care over the life course. While most previous research has focused on the time adult women and men spend on housework and the division of domestic chores among partners, this unique contribution studies the amount of time spent on chores by Italians in different phases of the life course. It addresses relevant aspects often neglected in time use studies, such as the socialization to domestic chores among children, teenagers and young adults living in the parental home and the reproduction of gender inequalities in housework at later stages of the life course. -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Theoretical background -- Chapter 3. The Italian Time Use Survey -- Chapter 4. Domestic work among children, teenagers, and young adults -- Chapter 5. Young and beautiful. Domestic work among childless women and men -- Chapter 6. Parenthood and domestic work: a never-ending workload -- Chapter 7. When the kids grow up: domestic work among Italians aged 45 to 64 -- Chapter 8. In the empty nest: housework and adult care among Italians aged 65 and above -- Chapter 9. Conclusions

Since the 1960s, the allocation of resources in couples has been the object of much research in both the fields of economics and sociology. Today, the growth of women’s economic independence and their increased potential to control economic resources within their households raise important questions about the dynamics of intra-household sharing and calls for a reconsideration of existing theories on the allocation of household resources. This article reviews, in a non-technical way, the two lines of research, in economics and sociology respectively, which have focused on the sharing of financial resources within a common unit of analysis: the household. After outlining their alternative applications and highlighting the similarities and differences between the two – starting from the unitary models of behaviour and encompassing bargaining theory, collective goods, and transaction cost approach – we discuss new developments in the form of the dynamic models and preference theory. Finally, we reflect on the challenges that the field currently faces and suggest possible pathways for future research.