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Parental Leave – A Policy Evaluation of the Swedish "Daddy-Month" Reform

Author

Listed:
  • Ekberg, John

    (SOFI, Stockholm University)

  • Eriksson, Rickard

    (SOFI, Stockholm University)

  • Friebel, Guido

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

Abstract

Many countries are trying to incentivize fathers to increase their share in parental leave and in household work to improve female labor market opportunities. Our unique data set stems from a natural experiment in Sweden. The data comprises all children born before (control group) and after the reform (treatment group) in cohorts of up to 27,000 newborns, mothers and fathers. We find strong short term effects of incentives on male parental leave. However, we find no learning-by doing, or specialization, effects: fathers in the treatment group do not have larger shares in the leave taken for care of sick children, which is our measure for household work.

Suggested Citation

  • Ekberg, John & Eriksson, Rickard & Friebel, Guido, 2005. "Parental Leave – A Policy Evaluation of the Swedish "Daddy-Month" Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 1617, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1617
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender and labor; family benefits; natural experiment; incentives;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy
    • 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
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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