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Effects of Extending Paid Parental Leave on Children’s Socio-Emotional Skills and Well-Being in Adolescence

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Listed:
  • Mikkel Aagaard Houmark

    (Department of Economics and Business Economics and TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research, Aarhus University)

  • Cecilie Marie Løchte Jørgensen

    (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University)

  • Ida Lykke Kristiansen

    (Department of Economics and CEBI, University of Copenhagen)

  • Miriam Gensowski

    (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit, and IZA, Bonn)

Abstract

We study how children’s socio-emotional skills and well-being in adolescence are affected by an increase in the duration of parental care during infancy. Exploiting a Danish reform that extended paid parental leave in 2002 and effectively delayed children’s entry into formal out-of-home care, we show that longer leave increases adolescent well-being, conscientiousness and emotional stability, and reduces school absenteeism. The effects are strongest for children of mothers who would have taken short leave in absence of the reform. This highlights how time spent with a parent is particularly productive during very early childhood.

Suggested Citation

  • Mikkel Aagaard Houmark & Cecilie Marie Løchte Jørgensen & Ida Lykke Kristiansen & Miriam Gensowski, 2022. "Effects of Extending Paid Parental Leave on Children’s Socio-Emotional Skills and Well-Being in Adolescence," CEBI working paper series 22-14, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    • Handle: RePEc:kud:kucebi:2214
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    2. Bingley, Paul & Cappellari, Lorenzo & Ovidi, Marco, 2023. "When It Hurts the Most: Timing of Parental Job Loss and a Child's Education," IZA Discussion Papers 16367, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Houmark, Mikkel Aagaard, 2023. "First Among Equals? How Birth Order Shapes Child Development," MPRA Paper 119325, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Parental Leave; Early Childhood; Skill Formation; Parental Investments; Socio-Emotional Skills; Personality; Well-Being; Adolescence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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