IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-04911932.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Who is affected by parental leave reforms? Women’s selection into different parental leave lengths across recent policy reforms in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Lara Bister

    (University of Groningen [Groningen], Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics, IMQ and IGIER - Università Bocconi)

  • Peter Eibich

    (Legos - Laboratoire d'Economie et de Gestion des Organisations de Santé - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Roberta Rutigliano

    (UPV / EHU - Universidad del País Vasco [Espainia] / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea [España] = University of the Basque Country [Spain] = Université du pays basque [Espagne], OPIK - Research Group on Social Determinants of Health and Demographic Change - UPV / EHU - Universidad del País Vasco [Espainia] / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea [España] = University of the Basque Country [Spain] = Université du pays basque [Espagne])

Abstract

Public parental leave schemes aim to facilitate women's reconciliation of family and employment after their transition into motherhood. While parental leave policies underwent several reforms over the past decades, adapting to changing female labour market participation and family cultures, the available entitlements are not tailored to women's individual circumstances and needs. It remains unclear how these affect the women's parental leave uptake, particularly the leave length. In this paper, we followed an exploratory and descriptive approach to study the selection of women into different parental leave lengths with changing public parental leave entitlements in Germany and according to their individual characteristics. We use data from the German Statutory Pension Fund on 29,001 women born between 1955 and 1984 who had their first child between 1991 and 2016 at the ages 20–39. We estimate linear regression and discrete-time proportional hazard models to examine associations between women's characteristics and their length of leave. We identify the effects of two major parental leave reforms in Germany in 1992 and 2007 in a Regression Discontinuity Design. Our results show that the general extension of available parental leave entitlements in 1992 increased the likelihood of women's parental leave uptake between 25 and 36 months. For women who became mothers at an older age, had a high income before transitioning into motherhood, or with higher education; however, the likelihood of parental leave uptake of 2 months increased. The reform of 2007 led to an increased likelihood of leave uptake longer than 2 months for these women. These findings suggest that women with a higher labour market attachment have responded more strongly to the changes in parental leave benefits in Germany.

Suggested Citation

  • Lara Bister & Peter Eibich & Roberta Rutigliano, 2024. "Who is affected by parental leave reforms? Women’s selection into different parental leave lengths across recent policy reforms in Germany," Post-Print hal-04911932, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04911932
    DOI: 10.1186/s41118-024-00221-4
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04911932v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-04911932v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s41118-024-00221-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aitken, Zoe & Garrett, Cameryn C. & Hewitt, Belinda & Keogh, Louise & Hocking, Jane S. & Kavanagh, Anne M., 2015. "The maternal health outcomes of paid maternity leave: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 32-41.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Persson, Petra & Rossin-Slater, Maya, 2019. "When Dad Can Stay Home: Fathers' Workplace Flexibility and Maternal Health," IZA Discussion Papers 12386, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Persson, Petra & Rossin-Slater, Maya, 2019. "When Dad Can Stay Home: Fathers’ Workplace Flexibility and Maternal Health," CEPR Discussion Papers 13780, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Anam Bilgrami & Kompal Sinha & Henry Cutler, 2020. "The impact of introducing a national scheme for paid parental leave on maternal mental health outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(12), pages 1657-1681, December.
    4. Lebihan, Laetitia & Mao Takongmo, Charles Olivier, 2023. "The effect of paid parental leave on breastfeeding, parental health and behavior," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    5. Petra Rattay & Elena von der Lippe, 2020. "Association between Living with Children and the Health and Health Behavior of Women and Men. Are There Differences by Age? Results of the “German Health Update” (GEDA) Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-19, May.
    6. Deborah Karasek & Sarah Raifman & William H. Dow & Rita Hamad & Julia M. Goodman, 2022. "Evaluating the Effect of San Francisco’s Paid Parental Leave Ordinance on Birth Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-12, September.
    7. Tingting Zhang & Chloe Rodrigue, 2023. "What If Moms Quiet Quit? The Role of Maternity Leave Policy in Working Mothers’ Quiet Quitting Behaviors," Merits, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-20, March.
    8. Lee, Bethany C. & Modrek, Sepideh & White, Justin S. & Batra, Akansha & Collin, Daniel F. & Hamad, Rita, 2020. "The effect of California's paid family leave policy on parent health: A quasi-experimental study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    9. Doran, Elizabeth L. & Bartel, Ann P. & Ruhm, Christopher J. & Waldfogel, Jane, 2020. "California's paid family leave law improves maternal psychological health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    10. Nora Bearth, 2024. "Beyond Baby Blues: The Child Penalty in Mental Health in Switzerland," Papers 2410.20861, arXiv.org.
    11. Camila Perera & Shivit Bakrania & Alessandra Ipince & Zahrah Nesbitt‐Ahmed & Oluwaseun Obasola & Dominic Richardson & Jorinde Van de Scheur & Ruichuan Yu, 2022. "Impact of social protection on gender equality in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of reviews," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), June.
    12. Chuard, Caroline, 2023. "Negative effects of long parental leave on maternal health: Evidence from a substantial policy change in Austria," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    13. Knoester, Chris & Li, Qi & Petts, Richard, 2021. "Attitudes about Paid Parental Leave: Cross-national comparisons and the significance of gendered expectations, family strains, and extant leave offerings," SocArXiv pmby8_v1, Center for Open Science.
    14. Bister, Lara & Eibich, Peter & Rutigliano, Roberta, 2024. "Who is affected by parental leave reforms? Women’s selection into different parental leave lengths across recent policy reforms in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 80, pages 1-20.
    15. Ahmed, Salma & Fielding, David, 2019. "Changes in maternity leave coverage: Implications for fertility, labour force participation and child mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    16. Hewitt, Belinda & Strazdins, Lyndall & Martin, Bill, 2017. "The benefits of paid maternity leave for mothers' post-partum health and wellbeing: Evidence from an Australian evaluation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 97-105.
    17. Knoester, Chris & Li, Qi & Petts, Richard, 2021. "Attitudes about Paid Parental Leave: Cross-national comparisons and the significance of gendered expectations, family strains, and extant leave offerings," SocArXiv pmby8, Center for Open Science.
    18. Nicole Guertzgen & Karsten Hank, 2018. "Maternity Leave and Mothers’ Long-Term Sickness Absence: Evidence From West Germany," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(2), pages 587-615, April.
    19. Cristina Giudici & Silvia Polettini & Alessandra Rose & Nicolas Brouard, 2019. "Which Aspects of Elderly Living Conditions are Important to Predict Mortality? The Complex Role of Family Ties at Home and in Institutions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 1255-1283, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04911932. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.