Working Paper: NBER ID: w5688
Authors: Christopher J. Ruhm
Abstract: This study investigates the economic consequences of parental leave mandates using data for 16 European countries over the 1969 through 1988 period. Since women use virtually all of the family leave in most nations, men constitute a reasonable comparison group and the natural experiment in most of the analysis involves examining how changes in leave entitlements affect the gap between female and male labor market outcomes. The employment-to-populations ratios of women in their prime childbearing years are also compared to those of older females, as a function of changes in leave regulations. Parental leave mandates are associated with increases in total employment but appear to have a more modest effect on weekly work hours and there is some evidence that women pay for entitlements to extended leave by receiving lower relative wages. The econometric estimates are sensitive to the inclusion of controls for time-varying country effects and sex-specific within-country time-trends.
Keywords: Parental Leave; Labor Market Outcomes; Gender Equality
JEL Codes: J13; J22; J32
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Parental leave entitlements (J22) | Female employment-to-population ratio (J21) |
| Parental leave entitlements (J22) | Weekly work hours (J22) |
| Parental leave entitlements (J22) | Relative wages of women (J31) |