Parental Leave and Life Satisfaction: The Dutch case

Laetitia Dillenseger, Martijn Burger and Francis Munier

Working Papers of BETA from Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg

Abstract: There is extensive literature on ambiguous effects of having children on life satisfaction. Although parenthood can provide a meaning of life, parenting may increase the amount of obligations and decrease leisure time, which in turn reduce life satisfaction. In the Netherlands, parental leave is a part-time work arrangement which allows parents with young children to reconcile better work and family commitments. Using data from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS), we analyzed the impact of taking parental leave on the life satisfaction of parents with young children. We found that the legal framework of Dutch parental leave offering job protected leave and fiscal benefits is crucial to enhance parents’ life satisfaction. Further, we estimated that short parental leave schemes are more conducive to life satisfaction than long parental leave schemes.

Keywords: Parental Leave scheme; Children; Happiness; Satisfaction; Work-life balance; the Netherlands. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C10 H53 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hap and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2019-26

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