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Parental Leave Benefits and Child Penalties

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  • Sevrin Waights

Abstract

I use the universe of tax returns in Germany and a regression kink design to estimate the impact of the benefit amount available to high-earning women after their first childbirth on subsequent within-couple earnings inequality. Lower benefit amounts result in a reduced earnings gap that persists beyond the benefit period for at least nine years after the birth. The longer-term impacts are driven by couples where the mother earned more than the father pre-birth. Simulations suggest it would take a 50% reduction in the benefit amount to completely eliminate long-run child penalties for sample couples. Lower benefits also reduce take-up of paid leave by mothers, lower the chances of having further children, and have no impact on marital stability.

Suggested Citation

  • Sevrin Waights, 2022. "Parental Leave Benefits and Child Penalties," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2016, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp2016
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child penalties; gender inequality in earnings; social norms; parental leave policy; regression kink design;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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