IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp18194.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Parental Leave and Intimate Partner Violence

Author

Listed:
  • Anderberg, Dan

    (Royal Holloway, University of London)

  • Andersen, Line Hjorth

    (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit)

  • Daysal, N. Meltem

    (University of Copenhagen)

  • Ejrnæs, Mette

    (University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

We examine the impact of a 2002 Danish parental leave reform on intimate partner violence (IPV) using administrative data on assault-related hospital contacts. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show that extending fully paid leave increased mothers’ leave-taking and substantially reduced IPV, with effects concentrated among less-educated women. The reform also lengthened birth spacing, while separations remained unchanged and earnings effects were modest. The timing and heterogeneity of impacts point to fertility adjustments—rather than exit options or financial relief—as the key mechanism. Parental leave policy thus emerges as an underexplored lever for reducing IPV.

Suggested Citation

  • Anderberg, Dan & Andersen, Line Hjorth & Daysal, N. Meltem & Ejrnæs, Mette, 2025. "Parental Leave and Intimate Partner Violence," IZA Discussion Papers 18194, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp18194.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    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:dp18194. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.