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Duration of maternity leave in Germany: A case study of nonparametric hazard models and penalized splines

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  • Kuhlenkasper, Torben
  • Kauermann, Göran

Abstract

The paper investigates maternity leave behavior in West Germany for females being employed between 1995 and 2006 using data from the German Socio Economic Panel. The observational study focuses on the investigation of individual and family-related covariate effects on the duration of maternity leave following first or second childbirth, respectively. Dynamic duration time models are used in which covariate effects are allowed to vary smoothly with duration of being in maternity leave. The intention of the paper is to demonstrate with state of the art models how effects of covariables change over time and to analyse substantial differences between maternity leaves following first and second childbirth. Particularly the personal income of mothers and the educational attainment influence the decision when to return into employment. The leave period following second birth is influenced by the mothers' attachment to the labour market between their two maternity leave periods. As fitting routine penalized spline smoothing effects is employed using available software in R (http://www.r-project.org).

Suggested Citation

  • Kuhlenkasper, Torben & Kauermann, Göran, 2010. "Duration of maternity leave in Germany: A case study of nonparametric hazard models and penalized splines," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 466-473, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:17:y:2010:i:3:p:466-473
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Eva M. Berger & Luke Haywood, 2016. "Locus of Control and Mothers’ Return to Employment," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(4), pages 442-481.
    2. Kuhlenkasper, Torben & Kauermann, Göran, 2010. "Female wage profiles: An additive mixed model approach to employment breaks due to childcare," HWWI Research Papers 2-18, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    3. Eva Österbacka & Tapio Räsänen, 2022. "Back to work or stay at home? Family policies and maternal employment in Finland," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 1071-1101, July.
    4. Di Gioacchino, Debora & Ghignoni, Emanuela & Verashchagina, Alina, 2025. "Career break around childbirth: the role of individual preferences and social norms," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1564, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Torben Kuhlenkasper & Max Friedrich Steinhardt, 2011. "Unemployment Duration in Germany – A comprehensive study with dynamic hazard models and P-Splines," Norface Discussion Paper Series 2011018, Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.
    6. Jochen Lüdering, 2018. "Standing and ‘survival’ in the adult film industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(16), pages 1812-1823, April.
    7. Debora Di Gioacchino & Emanuela Ghignoni & Alina Verashchagina, 2019. "Le scelte di fertilit? e la durata della maternit? in Italia: vincoli economici e norme sociali," QUADERNI DI ECONOMIA DEL LAVORO, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(110), pages 93-110.

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