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Anti-discrimination Legislation and the Efficiency-Enhancing Role of Mandatory Parental Leave

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  • Spencer Bastani
  • Tomer Blumkin
  • Luca Micheletto

Abstract

We study a setting where anti-discrimination legislation gives rise to adverse selection in the labor market. Firms rely on nonlinear compensation contracts to screen workers who differ in their family/career orientation. This results in a labor market equilibrium where career-oriented workers are offered an inefficiently low duration of parental leave. In addition, family-oriented workers are offered lower wages as compared to their equally skilled career-oriented counterparts. We demonstrate the usefulness of mandatory parental leave rules in mitigating the distortion in the labor market and derive conditions under which a Pareto improvement is possible. We also characterize the optimal parental leave policy and highlight the possibility for parental leave legislation to eliminate the wage penalty of family-oriented workers by supporting pooling employment contracts.

Suggested Citation

  • Spencer Bastani & Tomer Blumkin & Luca Micheletto, 2016. "Anti-discrimination Legislation and the Efficiency-Enhancing Role of Mandatory Parental Leave," CESifo Working Paper Series 5917, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5917
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    3. Tallås Ahlzén, Malin, 2021. "Peer effects and parental leave of fathers," Working Paper Series 1/2021, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    4. Spencer Bastani & Tomer Blumkin & Luca Micheletto, 2017. "Gender Wage Gap and the Welfare-Enhancing Role of Parental Leave Rules," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 15(02), pages 03-07, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    anti-discrimination; adverse selection; parental leave; efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J83 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Workers' Rights

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