IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/use/tkiwps/1109.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Labour Market Effects of Parental Leave: A European Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Y.E. Akgündüz
  • J. Plantenga

Abstract

We investigate the aggregate-level effects of parental leave legislation on various labour market outcomes of women in 16 European countries for the period since 1970. The paper updates and extends previous findings in the literature. Results show increases in participation rates that diminish with length and generosity of leave schemes. While pure participation numbers may not increase as dramatically as hoped, there is strong evidence of increases in weekly working hours. On the flipside, decreases in wages for high-skilled workers and amplified occupational segregation are likely results of generous leave schemes. We conclude with a discussion of recent debates over extending minimum maternity and parental leave rights on the European level.

Suggested Citation

  • Y.E. Akgündüz & J. Plantenga, 2011. "Labour Market Effects of Parental Leave: A European Perspective," Working Papers 11-09, Utrecht School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:use:tkiwps:1109
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/218756/11-09.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nabanita Datta Gupta & Nina Smith & Mette Verner, 2008. "PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE: The impact of Nordic countries’ family friendly policies on employment, wages, and children," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 65-89, March.
    2. Jane Waldfogel, 1998. "Understanding the "Family Gap" in Pay for Women with Children," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 137-156, Winter.
    3. Jérôme De Henau & Danièle Meulders & Sile Padraigin O'Dorchai, 2007. "Parents' care and career: comparing parental leave policies," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/9277, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Janneke Plantenga, 2014. "Searching for Welfare, Work and Gender Equality. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 59," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47212, February.

    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. Yusuf Emre Akgunduz & Janneke Plantenga, 2013. "Labour market effects of parental leave in Europe," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 845-862.
    2. Guyonne Kalb, 2018. "Paid Parental Leave and Female Labour Supply: AÂ Review," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 94(304), pages 80-100, March.
    3. Hirvonen, Lalaina, 2009. "The Effect of Children on Earnings Using Exogenous Variation in Family Size: Swedish Evidence," Working Paper Series 2/2009, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    4. Sami Napari, 2010. "Is There a Motherhood Wage Penalty in the Finnish Private Sector?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(1), pages 55-73, March.
    5. Christina Boll & Julian Leppin & Nora Reich, 2014. "Paternal childcare and parental leave policies: evidence from industrialized countries," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 129-158, March.
    6. Biro, Aniko & Bisztray, Márta & da Fonseca, João G. & Molnár, Tímea Laura, 2023. "Accident-Induced Absence from Work and Wage Ladders," IZA Discussion Papers 16312, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Hamish Low & Virginia Sánchez-Marcos, 2015. "Female labour market outcomes and the impact of maternity leave policies," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-22, December.
    8. John S. Heywood & W.S. Siebert & Xiangdong Wei, 2011. "Estimating the Use of Agency Workers: Can Family-Friendly Practices Reduce Their Use?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 535-564, July.
    9. Geyer, Johannes & Haan, Peter & Wrohlich, Katharina, 2015. "The effects of family policy on maternal labor supply: Combining evidence from a structural model and a quasi-experimental approach," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 84-98.
    10. Julia Bredtmann & Nina Smith, 2018. "Inequalities in Educational Outcomes: How Important Is the Family?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 80(6), pages 1117-1144, December.
    11. Svenja G rtner, 2013. "German Stagnation vs. Swedish Progression: Gender Wage Gaps in Comparison, 1960-2006," LIS Working papers 586, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    12. Benjamin Bennett & Isil Erel & Léa H. Stern & Zexi Wang, 2020. "Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 27788, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Cemal Eren Arbatlı & Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2020. "Diversity and Conflict," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 727-797, March.
    14. Christine Jolls, 2007. "Employment Law and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 13230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Oskar Skans & Linus Liljeberg, 2014. "The wage effects of subsidized career breaks," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 593-617, September.
    16. C. Spiess & Katharina Wrohlich, 2008. "The Parental Leave Benefit Reform in Germany: Costs and Labour Market Outcomes of Moving towards the Nordic Model," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 27(5), pages 575-591, October.
    17. Sheree Gibb & David Fergusson & L. Horwood & Joseph Boden, 2014. "The Effects of Parenthood on Workforce Participation and Income for Men and Women," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 14-26, March.
    18. Christian Neumeier & Todd Sørensen & Douglas Webber, 2018. "The Implicit Costs of Motherhood over the Lifecycle: Cross‐Cohort Evidence from Administrative Longitudinal Data," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(3), pages 716-733, January.
    19. Ramiro Rodríguez Revilla, 2013. "Equidad Laboral para Mujeres Mayores de 40 Años en Colombia," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0144, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    20. Yana van der Meulen Rodgers & Gunseli Berik, 2006. "Asia's Race to Capture Post-MFA Markets: A Snapshot of Labor Standards, Compliance, and Impacts on Competitiveness," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2006_02, University of Utah, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Parental leave; gender gap; labour force participation; wages;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:use:tkiwps:1109. 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: Marina Muilwijk (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eiruunl.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.