IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/cambje/v37y2013i4p845-862.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labour market effects of parental leave in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Yusuf Emre Akgunduz
  • Janneke 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 between 1970 and 2010. The paper updates and extends previous findings in the literature. The results show increases in participation rates that diminish with length and generosity of leave schemes. While pure participation numbers may not increase dramatically, there is strong evidence of increases in weekly working hours. On the other hand, a decrease in wages for high-skilled women and amplified occupational segregation are possible results of long parental leave schemes. We conclude with a discussion of the recent debates over extending minimum maternity and parental leave rights on the European level. Copyright , Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Yusuf Emre Akgunduz & Janneke Plantenga, 2013. "Labour market effects of parental leave in Europe," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 37(4), pages 845-862.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:37:y:2013:i:4:p:845-862
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/bes052
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ruhm, Christopher J., 2000. "Parental leave and child health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 931-960, November.
    2. Florence Jaumotte, 2003. "Female Labour Force Participation: Past Trends and Main Determinants in OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 376, OECD Publishing.
    3. Karsten Hank, 2002. "Regional Social Contexts and Individual Fertility Decisions: A Multilevel Analysis of First and Second Births in Western Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 270, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Christian Dustmann & Costas Meghir, 2005. "Wages, Experience and Seniority," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 72(1), pages 77-108.
    5. Ondrich, Jan & Spiess, C Katharina & Yang, Qing, 1996. "Barefoot and in a German Kitchen: Federal Parental Leave and Benefit Policy and the Return to Work after Childbirth in Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 9(3), pages 247-266, August.
    6. Karsten Hank, 2002. "Regional Social Contexts and Individual Fertility Decisions: A Multilevel Analysis of First and Second Births in Western Germany," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 281-299, September.
    7. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2000. "Gender Differences in Pay," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 75-99, Fall.
    8. Hans‐Werner Sinn, 2004. "The New Systems Competition," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 5(1), pages 23-38, February.
    9. Christopher J. Ruhm, 1998. "The Economic Consequences of Parental Leave Mandates: Lessons from Europe," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(1), pages 285-317.
    10. Jan Ondrich & Katharina C. Spieß & Qing Yang, 2002. "The Effect of Maternity Leave on Women's Pay in Germany 1984-1994," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 289, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Blackburn, McKinley L., 1997. "Misspecified skedastic functions in grouped-data models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 1-8, August.
    12. Blank, Rebecca M, 1989. "The Role of Part-Time Work in Women's Labor Market Choices over Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 295-299, May.
    13. Chiara Pronzato, 2009. "Return to work after childbirth: does parental leave matter in Europe?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 341-360, December.
    14. 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.
    15. Anne Gauthier, 2007. "The impact of family policies on fertility in industrialized countries: a review of the literature," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 26(3), pages 323-346, June.
    16. Rafael Lalive & Josef Zweimüller, 2009. "How Does Parental Leave Affect Fertility and Return to Work? Evidence from Two Natural Experiments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1363-1402.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. Bianca Buligescu & Denis de Crombrugghe & Gülçin Menteşoğlu & Raymond Montizaan, 2009. "Panel estimates of the wage penalty for maternal leave," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 61(suppl_1), pages 35-55, April.
    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. Lohmann, Henning & Zagel, Hannah, 2016. "Family policy in comparative perspective: the concepts and measurement of familization and defamilization," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 48-65.
    2. Jessica Gabriele Walter, 2018. "The adequacy of measures of gender roles attitudes: a review of current measures in omnibus surveys," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 829-848, March.
    3. Bicakova, Alena & Kaliskova, Klara, 2016. "Career Breaks after Childbirth: The Impact of Family Leave Reforms in the Czech Republic," IZA Discussion Papers 10149, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. van Vugt, Lynn & Nieuwenhuis, Rense & Levels, Mark, 2020. "Escaping the motherhood trap: Parental leave and childcare help young mothers to avoid NEET risks," Research Memorandum 033, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    5. Lembcke, Franziska & Nöh, Lukas & Schwarz, Milena, 2021. "Anreizwirkungen des deutschen Steuer- und Transfersystems auf das Erwerbsangebot von Zweitverdienenden," Working Papers 06/2021, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
    6. Nikolett Somogyi & Wim Van Lancker & Rossella Ciccia & Sarah Van de Velde, 2021. "The Relationship between Familizing and Individualizing Policies and Mental Health in Parents in Europe," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, February.
    7. Bakker, Vincent & Van Vliet, Olaf, 2019. "Social Investment, Employment Outcomes and Policy and Institutional Complementarities: A Comparative Analysis across 26 OECD countries," MPRA Paper 96140, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Vu, Khoa & Glewwe, Paul, 2022. "Maternity benefits mandate and women’s choice of work in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    9. Fallon, Kathleen M. & Mazar, Alissa & Swiss, Liam, 2017. "The Development Benefits of Maternity Leave," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 102-118.
    10. Agnieszka Gehringer & Stephan Klasen, 2017. "Labor Force Participation of Women in the EU – What Role do Family Policies Play?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 31(1), pages 15-42, March.
    11. Michela Bia & German Blanco & Marie Valentova, 2021. "The Causal Impact of Taking Parental Leave on Wages: Evidence from 2005 to 2015," LISER Working Paper Series 2021-08, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    12. Rense Nieuwenhuis & Teresa Munzi & J rg Neugschwender & Heba Omar & Flaviana Palmisano, 2019. "Gender Equality and Poverty are Intrinsically Linked," LIS Working papers 759, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    13. Andrea Schäfer & Karin Gottschall, 2015. "From wage regulation to wage gap: how wage-setting institutions and structures shape the gender wage gap across three industries in 24 European countries and Germany," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 39(2), pages 467-496.
    14. Cecilia Machado & Valdemar Neto & Christiane Szerman, 2023. "Firm and Worker Responses to Extensions in Paid Maternity Leave," CESifo Working Paper Series 10736, CESifo.
    15. Knoester, Chris & Li, Qi & Petts, Richard, 2021. "Attitudes about Paid Parental Leave: Cross-national comparisons and the significance of gendered expectations, family strains, and extant leave offerings," SocArXiv pmby8, Center for Open Science.
    16. Helen Kowalewska, 2021. "Bringing Women on Board? Family Policies, Quotas and Gender Diversity in Top Jobs," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(4), pages 735-752, August.

    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. Charles L. Baum II & Christopher J. Ruhm, 2016. "The Effects of Paid Family Leave in California on Labor Market Outcomes," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 333-356, April.
    2. Janneke Plantenga, 2014. "Searching for Welfare, Work and Gender Equality. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 59," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47212, February.
    3. C. Katharina Spieß, 2011. "Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf – wie wirksam sind deutsche „Care Policies“?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 12(s1), pages 4-27, May.
    4. Fallon, Kathleen M. & Mazar, Alissa & Swiss, Liam, 2017. "The Development Benefits of Maternity Leave," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 102-118.
    5. Karl Aiginger & Kurt Kratena & Margit Schratzenstaller & Teresa Weiss, 2014. "Moving Towards a New Growth Model. WWWforEurope Deliverable No. 3," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47247, February.
    6. Jonas Wood & Karel Neels, 2019. "Does Mothers’ Parental Leave Uptake Stimulate Continued Employment and Family Formation? Evidence for Belgium," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-24, October.
    7. Micaela Bassford & Hayley Fisher, 2020. "The Impact of Paid Parental Leave on Fertility Intentions," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(315), pages 402-430, December.
    8. Colin Cannonier, 2014. "Does the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Increase Fertility Behavior?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 105-132, June.
    9. Maya Rossin-Slater, 2017. "Maternity and Family Leave Policy," NBER Working Papers 23069, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Julio E. Romero Prieto, 2018. "La maternidad y el empleo formal en Colombia," Documentos de Trabajo Sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 16328, Banco de la República, Economía Regional.
    11. Fitzenberger, Bernd & Sommerfeld, Katrin & Steffes, Susanne, 2013. "Causal effects on employment after first birth — A dynamic treatment approach," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 49-62.
    12. Neyer, Gerda, 2003. "Family Policies and Low Fertility in Western Europe," Discussion Paper 161, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    13. Troeger, Vera E. & Di Leo, Riccardo & Scotto, Thomas J. & Epifanio, Mariaelisa, 2020. "Motherhood in Academia: A Novel Dataset with an Application to Maternity Leave Uptake," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 518, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    14. Reed, Joshua & Vandegrift, Donald, 2016. "The Effect of New Jersey’s Paid Parental Leave Policy on Employment," MPRA Paper 74794, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Bassford, Micaela & Fisher, Hayley, 2016. "Bonus babies? The impact of paid parental leave on fertility intentions," Working Papers 2016-04, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    16. Agnieszka Piasna & Anke Plagnol, 2018. "Women’s Job Quality Across Family Life Stages: An Analysis of Female Employees Across 27 European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 1065-1084, October.
    17. Andres Erosa & Luisa Fuster & Diego Restuccia, 2010. "A General Equilibrium Analysis of Parental Leave Policies," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 13(4), pages 742-758, October.
    18. Troeger, Vera E. & Di Leo, Riccardo & Scotto, Thomas J. & Epifanio, Mariaelisa, 2020. "Motherhood in Academia : A Novel Dataset with an Application to Maternity Leave Uptake," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1312, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    19. Joseph, Olivier & Pailhé, Ariane & Recotillet, Isabelle & Solaz, Anne, 2013. "The economic impact of taking short parental leave: Evaluation of a French reform," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 63-75.
    20. Ann-Christin Bächmann & Dörthe Gatermann, 2017. "The duration of family-related employment interruptions – the role of occupational characteristics [Die Bedeutung des Berufs für die Dauer von Erwerbsunterbrechungen nach der Geburt des ersten Kind," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 50(1), pages 143-160, August.

    More about this item

    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:oup:cambje:v:37:y:2013:i:4:p:845-862. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/cje .

    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.