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Becoming a mompreneur: Parental leave policies and mothers' propensity for self-employment

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  • Gerards, Ruud

    (ROA / Training and employment, RS: GSBE DUHR, RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work)

  • Theunissen, Pomme

    (Finance, RS: GSBE EFME, RS: GSBE Theme Creativity, Innovation & Entrepreneurship)

Abstract

Contractionary parental leave policy reforms decrease the time mothers can stay at home after giving birth. This might discourage them to become an entrepreneur. Exploiting a German parental leave policy reform, we apply a regression discontinuity approach to establish a causal relationship between parental leave policies and the probability for mothers to become entrepreneurs (i.e., “mompreneurs”). We find that a decrease in the generosity of parental leave lowers the odds of mothers to become self-employed by 17%. We show additional evidence that suggests that this is particularly due to the reduced period of paid parental leave.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerards, Ruud & Theunissen, Pomme, 2018. "Becoming a mompreneur: Parental leave policies and mothers' propensity for self-employment," ROA Research Memorandum 006, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:umaror:2018006
    DOI: 10.26481/umaror.2018006
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

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