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A general equilibrium analysis of parental leave policies

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Author Info
Andrés Erosa () (IMDEA Ciencias Sociales)
Luisa Fuster () (IMDEA Ciencias Sociales)
Diego Restuccia () (University of Toronto)

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Abstract

Despite mandatory parental-leave policies being a prevalent feature of labor markets in developed countries, the aggregate effects of leave policies are not well understood. In order to assess the quantitative impact of mandated leave policies in the economy, we develop ageneral-equilibrium model of fertility and labor-market decisions that builds on the labormarket framework of Mortensen and Pissarides (1994). We find that females gain substantially with generous policies, but this benefit occurs at the expense of a reduction in the welfare of males. Mandated leave policies have important effects on fertility, leave taking decisions, and employment rate of mothers with infants. These effects are driven by how policy affects bargaining in job matches: Young females anticipate that there are some states in the future in which their threat point in bargaining will be higher. Because the realization of these states depend on the decisions of females to give birth and take a leave, the change in the threat point induced by the policy subsidizes fertility and leave taking. Unpaid parental leaves have a small impact on the time that mothers spend with their children but paid parental leaves can be an effective tool to encourage mothers to spend time with theirchildren after giving birth.

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Paper provided by Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales in its series Working Papers with number 2009-10.

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Date of creation: 30 Sep 2009
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Handle: RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2009-10

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Related research
Keywords: human capital; labor-market equilibrium; parental-leave policies; fertility; temporary separations;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution
E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  5. Andrés Erosa & Luisa Fuster & Diego Restuccia, 2005. "A Quantitative Theory of the Gender Gap in Wages," Working Papers tecipa-199, University of Toronto, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Andrés Erosa & Luisa Fuster & Diego Restuccia, 2005. "A Quantitative Theory of the Gender Gap in Wages," Working Papers tecipa-199, University of Toronto, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Elizabeth M. Caucutt & Nezih Guner & John Knowles, 2001. "The Timing of Births: A Marriage Market Analysis," Penn CARESS Working Papers 49355d43c11f2314075e8b54e, Penn Economics Department. [Downloadable!]
  3. Raquel Bernal & Anna Fruttero, 2008. "Parental leave policies, intra-household time allocations and children’s human capital," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 779-825, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Larry E. Jones & Alice Schoonbroodt & Michèle Tertilt, 2008. "Fertility Theories: Can They Explain the Negative Fertility-Income Relationship?," NBER Working Papers 14266, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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