IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp16244.html

Where Are the Fathers? The Effects of Earmarking Parental Leave on Fathers in France

Author

Listed:
  • Périvier, Hélène

  • Verdugo, Gregory

    (University of Cergy-Pontoise)

Abstract

Does providing nontransferable months of parental leave earmarked to fathers, as mandated by the European Union to its member countries since 2019, increase their participation? To answer that question, the authors investigate the consequences of a 2015 French reform that earmarked up to 12 months of paid leave for fathers while simultaneously reducing the maximum paid leave for mothers by the same number of months. While the benefits were low, parental leave could be taken part-time, which can be more attractive for fathers. Using administrative data and comparing parents of children born before and after the reform, the authors find that in response to a 25 p.p. decline in mothers' participation rate triggered by the reform, fathers' participation increased by less than 1 p.p., mostly through part-time leave. The reform increased mothers' labor earnings, but it had no significant impact on fathers' earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • Périvier, Hélène & Verdugo, Gregory, 2023. "Where Are the Fathers? The Effects of Earmarking Parental Leave on Fathers in France," IZA Discussion Papers 16244, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16244
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp16244.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertrand, Marianne, 2011. "New Perspectives on Gender," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 17, pages 1543-1590, Elsevier.
    2. 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.
    3. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Johanna Posch & Andreas Steinhauer & Josef Zweimüller, 2024. "Do Family Policies Reduce Gender Inequality? Evidence from 60 Years of Policy Experimentation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 110-149, May.
    4. Daniel Avdic & Arizo Karimi, 2018. "Modern Family? Paternity Leave and Marital Stability," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 283-307, October.
    5. Gordon B. Dahl & Katrine V. L?ken & Magne Mogstad, 2014. "Peer Effects in Program Participation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2049-2074, July.
    6. Farré, Lídia & González, Libertad, 2019. "Does paternity leave reduce fertility?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 52-66.
    7. Marianne Bertrand & Emir Kamenica & Jessica Pan, 2015. "Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 571-614.
    8. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Emmanuel Saez, 2013. "Using Differences in Knowledge across Neighborhoods to Uncover the Impacts of the EITC on Earnings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 2683-2721, December.
    9. Tamm, Marcus, 2019. "Fathers’ parental leave-taking, childcare involvement and labor market participation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 184-197.
    10. Shintaro Yamaguchi, 2019. "Effects of parental leave policies on female career and fertility choices," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 10(3), pages 1195-1232, July.
    11. Givord, Pauline & Marbot, Claire, 2015. "Does the cost of child care affect female labor market participation? An evaluation of a French reform of childcare subsidies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 99-111.
    12. Rafael Lalive & Alois Stutzer, 2010. "Approval of equal rights and gender differences in well-being," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(3), pages 933-962, June.
    13. Uta Schönberg & Johannes Ludsteck, 2014. "Expansions in Maternity Leave Coverage and Mothers' Labor Market Outcomes after Childbirth," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(3), pages 469-505.
    14. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    15. Ann P. Bartel & Maya Rossin†Slater & Christopher J. Ruhm & Jenna Stearns & Jane Waldfogel, 2018. "Paid Family Leave, Fathers’ Leave†Taking, and Leave†Sharing in Dual†Earner Households," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(1), pages 10-37, January.
    16. Patricia Cortés & Jessica Pan, 2023. "Children and the Remaining Gender Gaps in the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1359-1409, December.
    17. 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.
    18. Simon Janssen & Simone Tuor Sartore & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2016. "Discriminatory Social Attitudes and Varying Gender Pay Gaps within Firms," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 69(1), pages 253-279, January.
    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. Dominique Meurs & Pierre Pora, 2025. "Traditional Views, Egalitarian Views, and the Child Penalty: Insights from Immigrant Populations in France," Working Papers hal-04947430, HAL.
    2. Pierre Pora & Lionel Wilner, 2025. "Dissecting Child Penalties," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 78(5), pages 859-884, October.
    3. Pora, Pierre, 2025. "The supply of nursing labor in French hospitals: Outflows, part-time work and motherhood," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Averkamp, Dorothée, 2024. "The Gender Wage Gap, Labor-Market Experience, and Family Choices: Lessons from East Germany?," VfS Annual Conference 2024 (Berlin): Upcoming Labor Market Challenges 302347, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Martina Querejeta & Cecilia Olivieri & Ailin Tomio & Jorge Luis Castañeda & Ana María Muñoz B., 2026. "Changing Gender Norms Around Parenthood: Experimental Evidence from a Messaging Intervention in Uruguay," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 45(3), pages 1-29, June.

    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. Hélène Périvier & Gregory Verdugo, 2021. "Can parental leave be shared?," Working Papers hal-03364048, HAL.
    2. Dahl, Gordon & Loken, Katrine V., 2024. "Families, public policies, and the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics,, Elsevier.
    3. Gordon Dahl & Katrine Loken, 2024. "Families, Public Policies, and the Labor Market," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2423, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    4. Lidia Farré & Cristina Felfe & Libertad González Luna & Patrick Schneider, 2022. "Changing gender norms across generations: Evidence from a paternity leave reform," Economics Working Papers 1812, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    5. Lalive, Rafael, 2021. "Mothers at Work: How Mandating Paid Maternity Leave Affects Employment, Earnings and Fertility," CEPR Discussion Papers 16418, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    6. Girsberger, Esther Mirjam & Hassani-Nezhad, Lena & Karunanethy, Kalaivani & Lalive, Rafael, 2023. "Mothers at work: How mandating a short maternity leave affects work and fertility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Regmi, Krishna & Wang, Le, 2022. "Maternity Leave," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1184, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Ziegler, Lennart & Bamieh, Omar, 2023. "What Drives Paternity Leave: Financial Incentives or Flexibility?," IZA Discussion Papers 15890, IZA Network @ LISER.
    9. Baertsch, Laurenz & Sandner, Malte, 2025. "Reducing the child penalty by incentivizing maternal part-time work?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    10. Bruno Rodrigues & Vincent Vergnat, 2019. "The time and the transitions back to work in France after maternity," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 861-888, September.
    11. Grönqvist, Erik & Hensvik, Lena & Okuyama, Yoko & Thoresson, Anna, 2026. "Women’s labor market opportunities and equality in the household," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    12. Sara Mikkelsen & Noemi Peter, 2024. "More dads at home, more girls in maths‐intensive studies? Evidence from a parental leave reform," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 91(364), pages 1201-1221, October.
    13. Annette Bergemann & Regina T. Riphahn, 2023. "Maternal employment effects of paid parental leave," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 139-178, January.
    14. Salvanes, Kjell G & Johnsen, Julian Vedeler & Ku, Hyejin, 2020. "Competition and Career Advancement: The Hidden Costs of Paid Leave," CEPR Discussion Papers 15157, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    15. Chuard, Caroline, 2023. "Negative effects of long parental leave on maternal health: Evidence from a substantial policy change in Austria," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    16. Costa-Ramon, Ana & Schaede, Ursina & Slotwinski, Michaela & Brenøe, Anne Ardila, 2024. "(Not) Thinking about the Future: Inattention and Maternal Labor Supply," CEPR Discussion Papers 19543, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    17. Claudia Hupkau & Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela, 2022. "Work and children in Spain: challenges and opportunities for equality between men and women," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 243-268, May.
    18. Sevrin Waights, 2022. "Parental Leave Benefits and Child Penalties," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2016, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Alessandra Casarico & Edoardo Di Porto & Joanna Kopinska & Salvatore Lattanzio, 2025. "Leave and Let Leave: Workplace Peer Effects in Fathers’ Take-up of Parental Leave," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 25126, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    20. Matthias Collischon & Kamila Cygan-Rehm & Regina T. Riphahn, 2024. "Subsidized Small Jobs and Maternal Labor Market Outcomes in the Long Run," CESifo Working Paper Series 11508, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    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:iza:izadps:dp16244. 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: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.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.