IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/5688.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Economic Consequences of Parental Leave Mandates: Lessons from Europe

Author

Listed:
  • 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher J. Ruhm, 1996. "The Economic Consequences of Parental Leave Mandates: Lessons from Europe," NBER Working Papers 5688, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5688
    Note: EH LS PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w5688.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacobson, Louis S & LaLonde, Robert J & Sullivan, Daniel G, 1993. "Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 685-709, September.
    2. Alan Krueger, 1994. "Observations on Employment-Based Government Mandates, With Particular Reference to Health Insurance," Working Papers 702, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    3. Jonathan Gruber & Alan B. Krueger, 1991. "The Incidence of Mandated Employer-Provided Insurance: Lessons from Workers' Compensation Insurance," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 111-144, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Klerman, J. & Leibowitz, A., 1995. "Labor Supply Effects of State Maternity Leave Legislation," Papers 95-24, RAND - Labor and Population Program.
    5. Jacob Alex Klerman & Arleen Leibowitz, 1994. "The Work-Employment Distinction among New Mothers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(2), pages 277-303.
    6. Alan B. Krueger, 1994. "Observations on Employment-Based Government Mandates, With Particular Reference to Health Insurance," Working Papers 702, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    7. Blackburn, McKinley L., 1997. "Misspecified skedastic functions in grouped-data models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 1-8, August.
    8. Gruber, Jonathan, 1994. "The Incidence of Mandated Maternity Benefits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 622-641, June.
    9. Olivia S. Mitchell, 1990. "The Effects of Mandating Benefits Packages," NBER Working Papers 3260, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Kuhn, Peter, 1992. "Mandatory Notice," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(2), pages 117-137, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher J. Ruhm & Jackqueline L. Teague, 1995. "Parental Leave Policies in Europe and North America," NBER Working Papers 5065, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Baum, Charles II, 2003. "The effect of state maternity leave legislation and the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act on employment and wages," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 573-596, October.
    3. Lehrer, Steven F. & Pereira, Nuno Sousa, 2007. "Worker sorting, compensating differentials and health insurance: Evidence from displaced workers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 1034-1056, September.
    4. Jonathan Gruber & Aaron Yelowitz, 1999. "Public Health Insurance and Private Savings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(6), pages 1249-1274, December.
    5. Kugler, Adriana & Kugler, Maurice, 2003. "The labor market effects of payroll taxes in a middle-income country: evidence from Colombia," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0306, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    6. Kim, Jinyoung & Kim, Seonghoon & Koh, Kanghyock, 2022. "Labor market institutions and the incidence of payroll taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    7. Adriana Kugler & Maurice Kugler, 2009. "Labor Market Effects of Payroll Taxes in Developing Countries: Evidence from Colombia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(2), pages 335-358, January.
    8. David M. Cutler & Brigitte C. Madrian, 1998. "Labor Market Responses to Rising Health Insurance Costs: Evidence on Hours Worked," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(3), pages 509-530, Autumn.
    9. Kugler, Adriana & Kugler, Maurice, 2003. "The Labor Market Effects of Payroll Taxes in a Middle-Income Country: Evidence from Colombia," IZA Discussion Papers 852, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. María F. Prada & Graciana Rucci & Sergio S. Urzúa, 2015. "The Effect of Mandated Child Care on Female Wages in Chile," NBER Working Papers 21080, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Kevin F. Hallock & Xin Jin & Michael Waldman, 2022. "The total compensation gap, wage gap and benefit gap between workers with and without a disability," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(1), pages 3-31, March.
    12. Dizioli, Allan & Pinheiro, Roberto, 2016. "Health insurance as a productive factor," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-24.
    13. Lennon, Conor, 2021. "Are the costs of employer-sponsored health insurance passed on to workers at the individual level?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    14. María F. Prada & Graciana Rucci & Sergio S. Urzúa, 2015. "The Effect of Mandated Child Care on Female Wages in Chile," NBER Working Papers 21080, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Dorothea Alewell & Kerstin Pull, 2005. "Reform of the financing of maternity protection - a comment on the maternity protection ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 58(04), pages 22-27, February.
    16. Sam Desiere & Bart Cockx, 2021. "How Effective Are Hiring Subsidies to Reduce Long-Term Unemployment among Prime-Aged Jobseekers? Evidence from Belgium," CESifo Working Paper Series 9325, CESifo.
    17. Thomas Bauer & Regina Riphahn, 2002. "Employment effects of payroll taxes - an empirical test for Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(7), pages 865-876.
    18. Shelley A. Phipps, 2000. "Maternity and Parental Benefits in Canada: Are there Behavioural Implications?," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 26(4), pages 415-436, December.
    19. Cecilia Machado & Valdemar Neto & Christiane Szerman, 2023. "Firm and Worker Responses to Extensions in Paid Maternity Leave," CESifo Working Paper Series 10736, CESifo.
    20. Xinxin Ma & Jie Cheng, 2020. "The Impact of Social Insurance Contributions on Firms Employment and Wages: Evidence from China Employer-Employee Matching Survey Data," Asian Development Policy Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 8(1), pages 42-60, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5688. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.