Paper abstract:

In this paper, we analyze the care economy in post-soviet Kazakhstan, focusing on childcare issues using the Household Budget Survey (HBS).

Kazakhstan has gone through economic and social transformations since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As a result, the number of subsidized kindergarten facilities and social programs has drastically declined. These changes have increased women's childcare needs and decreased their participation in the labor force, affecting their household income. Verme (2001) found that women in Kazakhstan experience reduced income in the state sector and are less likely to be self-employed than men. Next, co-residence of adult children with elderly parents is continuously practiced in the country, which may substantially affect women's work decisions. Co-residence may reduce women's labor supply as they are expected to care for elderly family members. On the other hand, co-resident elderly family members often provide care to their grandchildren, which may facilitate women's labor force participation (Bruck et al., 2012). In the case of nuclear households, women may not have these options, which may force them to withdraw from the formal workforce to become the primary caregivers for children and consequently limit their financial autonomy and family income.

We use Kazakhstan HBS to examine households' decisions on childcare and allocation of share of income on child-related expenses. First, we estimate the sources of income, including formal employment and social transfers, and use data on preschool and school expenses, extracurricular activities fees, informal expenses for schoolchildren, tutoring, and babysitting services to define childcare expenses. We observe that income per capita in extended households having preschool children is higher than in nuclear families with preschool children, widening the income inequality in Kazakhstan. However, we did not find a difference in the share of income spent on childcare expenses between households with different living arrangements.