Download full text
(1.018Mb)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-75329-9
Exports for your reference manager
The Impact of Parental Leave Policy on Child-Rearing and Employment Behavior: The Case of Germany
[journal article]
Abstract Parental leave and child care are important instruments of family policies to improve work-family balance. This paper studies the impact of the substantial change in Germany's parental leave system on maternal employment. The aim of the reform was to decrease birth-related maternal employment breaks... view more
Parental leave and child care are important instruments of family policies to improve work-family balance. This paper studies the impact of the substantial change in Germany's parental leave system on maternal employment. The aim of the reform was to decrease birth-related maternal employment breaks by providing more generous parental benefits for a shorter period of time. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel data for 2002-2015, I exploited quasi-experimental variation in the benefits to estimate the impact of the reform. I incorporated the mother’s decision to substitute her care time with the public child care. To control for the availability of child care, I used spatial and temporal variation in the availability of childcare slots. Overall, I did not find significant changes in maternal employment during the first three years of motherhood after the reform implementation. Only for high-income mothers, the reform produced a significant decrease in the employment participation during the first year of leave and an increase in employment probability after the benefits expired. The empirical findings suggest that the restriction in the childcare availability became an important constraint for the employment effect of the reform.... view less
Keywords
SOEP; gainful employment; employment; child care; parental leave; work-family balance; motherhood; parenthood; maternity leave; family policy; reform; incentive system; Federal Republic of Germany
Classification
Family Policy, Youth Policy, Policy on the Elderly
Labor Market Research
Free Keywords
financial incentives; German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) data for 2002-2015; European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey 2012
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
Page/Pages
p. 1-27
Journal
IZA Journal of Labor Policy, 9 (2019) 1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.2478/izajolp-2019-0007
ISSN
2193-9004
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed