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Causes and Consequences of a Father's Child Leave: Evidence from a Reform of Leave Schemes

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  • Nielsen, Helena Skyt

    (Aarhus University)

Abstract

Many OECD countries have implemented policies to induce couples to share parental leave. This paper investigates how responsive intra-household leave-sharing is to changes in economic incentives. To investigate this fundamental question, we are forced to look at one of the Nordic countries which are the most progressive when it comes to family-friendly policies. An extensive reform of child leave schemes in Denmark affected couples differently depending on whether the parents where employed in the same or in different parts of the public sector. Based on a difference-in-differences strategy, I find that economic incentives are very important for intra-household leave-sharing. Increasing the couples' after tax income by $9 per day of leave which is transferred from the mother to the father is found to lead to a one day transfer. This corresponds to a supply elasticity close to unity.

Suggested Citation

  • Nielsen, Helena Skyt, 2009. "Causes and Consequences of a Father's Child Leave: Evidence from a Reform of Leave Schemes," IZA Discussion Papers 4267, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4267
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    1. Annette Bergemann & Regina Riphahn, 2011. "Female labour supply and parental leave benefits - the causal effect of paying higher transfers for a shorter period of time," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 17-20.
    2. Stephen G. Donald & Kevin Lang, 2007. "Inference with Difference-in-Differences and Other Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(2), pages 221-233, May.
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    4. Ekberg, John & Eriksson, Rickard & Friebel, Guido, 2013. "Parental leave — A policy evaluation of the Swedish “Daddy-Month” reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 131-143.
    5. Eriksson, Rickard, 2005. "Parental Leave in Sweden: The Effects of the Second Daddy Month," Working Paper Series 9/2005, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    6. Helena Skyt Nielsen & Marianne Simonsen & Mette Verner, 2004. "Does the Gap in Family‐friendly Policies Drive the Family Gap?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 106(4), pages 721-744, December.
    7. Elina Pylkkänen & Nina Smith, 2003. "Career Interruptions Due to Parental Leave: A Comparative Study of Denmark and Sweden," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 1, OECD Publishing.
    8. Wen-Jui Han & Christopher Ruhm & Jane Waldfogel, 2009. "Parental leave policies and parents' employment and leave-taking," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 29-54.
    9. James W. Albrecht & Per-Anders Edin & Marianne Sundström & Susan B. Vroman, 1999. "Career Interruptions and Subsequent Earnings: A Reexamination Using Swedish Data," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(2), pages 294-311.
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    Cited by:

    1. Olsson, Martin, 2013. "Employment Protection and Parental Child Care," Working Paper Series 952, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    2. Beuchert, Louise Voldby & Humlum, Maria Knoth & Vejlin, Rune, 2016. "The length of maternity leave and family health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 55-71.
    3. Simonsen, Marianne & Skipper, Lars, 2012. "The family gap in wages: What wombmates reveal," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 102-112.
    4. Thomas Høgholm Jørgensen & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2021. "Welfare Reforms and the Division of Parental Leave," CEBI working paper series 21-09, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    5. Anna Cristina D’Addio & Simon Chapple & Andreas Hoherz & Bert Van Landeghem, 2014. "Using a quasi-natural experiment to identify the effects of birth-related leave policies on subjective well-being in Europe," OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2013(1), pages 235-268.
    6. Zhelyazkova, N., 2013. "Fathers' use of parental leave. What do we know?," MERIT Working Papers 2013-022, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Nevena Zhelyazkova & Gilbert Ritschard, 2018. "Parental Leave Take-Up of Fathers in Luxembourg," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(5), pages 769-793, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    fathers; parental leave; child leave;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy

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