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Parental leave regulations, mothers’ labor force attachment and fathers’ childcare involvement: evidence from a natural experiment

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  • Jochen Kluve
  • Marcus Tamm

Abstract

In 2007, Germany implemented a generous parental leave regulation in order to make parenthood more attractive and more compatible with a working career, especially for mothers. We evaluate the reform using a natural experiment that compares outcomes of parents with children born shortly after and before the coming into effect of the law, and find a significant decrease in mothers’ employment probability during the 12 months after giving birth, and an increase in mothers’ employment probability after the transfer expires. The implementation of two daddy months is currently not reflected in significant changes in fathers’ time devoted to childcare. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Jochen Kluve & Marcus Tamm, 2013. "Parental leave regulations, mothers’ labor force attachment and fathers’ childcare involvement: evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(3), pages 983-1005, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:26:y:2013:i:3:p:983-1005
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-012-0404-1
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Parental leave; Natural experiment; Female labor market participation; H31; J13; J18;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

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