The Effects of Family Policy on Mothers' Labor Supply: Combining Evidence from a Structural Model and a Natural Experiment

Johannes Geyer, Peter Haan and Katharina Wrohlich

No 1366, Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: Parental leave and subsidized child care are prominent examples of family policies supporting the reconciliation of family life and labor market careers for mothers. In this paper, we combine different empirical strategies to evaluate the employment effects of these policies for mothers in Germany. In particular we estimate a structural labor supply model and exploit a natural experiment, i.e. the reform of parental leave benefits. By exploiting and combining the advantages of the different methods, i.e the internal validity of the natural experiment and the external validity of the structural model, we can go beyond evaluation studies restricted to one particular methodology. Our findings suggest that a combination of parental leave benefits and subsidized child care leads to sizable employment effects of mothers.

Keywords: Labor supply; parental leave benefits; childcare costs; structural model; natural experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C52 H31 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 p.
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Working Paper: The Effects of Family Policy on Mothers' Labor Supply: Combining Evidence from a Structural Model and a Natural Experiment (2014)
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