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Causes and Consequences of a Father’s Child Leave: Evidence from a Reform of Leave Schemes

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  • Helena Skyt Nielsen

    (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus, Denmark)

Abstract

Many OECD countries have implemented policies to induce couples to share parental leave. This paper investigates how responsive intra-household leave-sharing is to changes in economic incentives. To investigate this fundamental question, we are forced to look at one of the Nordic countries which are the most progressive when it comes to family-friendly policies. An extensive reform of child leave schemes in Denmark affected couples differently depending on whether the parents where employed in the same or in different parts of the public sector. Based on a difference-in-differences strategy, I find that economic incentives are very important for intra-household leave-sharing. Increasing the couples’ after tax income by $9 per day of leave which is transferred from the mother to the father is found to lead to a one day transfer. This corresponds to a supply elasticity close to unity.

Suggested Citation

  • Helena Skyt Nielsen, 2009. "Causes and Consequences of a Father’s Child Leave: Evidence from a Reform of Leave Schemes," Economics Working Papers 2009-08, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    • Handle: RePEc:aah:aarhec:2009-08
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    1. Ekberg, John & Eriksson, Rickard & Friebel, Guido, 2013. "Parental leave — A policy evaluation of the Swedish “Daddy-Month” reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 131-143.
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    6. Wen-Jui Han & Christopher Ruhm & Jane Waldfogel, 2009. "Parental leave policies and parents' employment and leave-taking," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 29-54.
    7. James W. Albrecht & Per-Anders Edin & Marianne Sundström & Susan B. Vroman, 1999. "Career Interruptions and Subsequent Earnings: A Reexamination Using Swedish Data," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(2), pages 294-311.
    8. Helena Skyt Nielsen & Marianne Simonsen & Mette Verner, 2004. "Does the Gap in Family‐friendly Policies Drive the Family Gap?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 106(4), pages 721-744, December.
    9. Elina Pylkkänen & Nina Smith, 2003. "Career Interruptions Due to Parental Leave: A Comparative Study of Denmark and Sweden," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 1, OECD Publishing.
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    Cited by:

    1. Simonsen, Marianne & Skipper, Lars, 2012. "The family gap in wages: What wombmates reveal," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 102-112.
    2. Olsson, Martin, 2013. "Employment protection and parental child care," Working Paper Series 2013:2, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    3. Beuchert, Louise Voldby & Humlum, Maria Knoth & Vejlin, Rune, 2016. "The length of maternity leave and family health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 55-71.
    4. Nevena Zhelyazkova & Gilbert Ritschard, 2018. "Parental Leave Take-Up of Fathers in Luxembourg," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(5), pages 769-793, October.
    5. Zhelyazkova, N., 2013. "Fathers' use of parental leave. What do we know?," MERIT Working Papers 2013-022, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    6. Anna Cristina D’Addio & Simon Chapple & Andreas Hoherz & Bert Van Landeghem, 2014. "Using a quasi-natural experiment to identify the effects of birth-related leave policies on subjective well-being in Europe," OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2013(1), pages 235-268.
    7. Thomas Høgholm Jørgensen & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2021. "Welfare Reforms and the Division of Parental Leave," CESifo Working Paper Series 9035, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    fathers; parental leave; child leave;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy

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