Does paternity leave affect mothers’ sickness absence?

Espen Bratberg () and Ghazala Naz ()
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Ghazala Naz: University of Bergen, Postal: Department of Economics, Fosswinckelsgt. 14, 5007 Bergen, Norway

No 06/09, Working Papers in Economics from University of Bergen, Department of Economics

Abstract: Female labour force participation is high in Norway but sickness absence rates are higher for women than for men. This may be partly a result of unequal sharing of childcare in the family. In this paper, we consider the effect of paternity leave on sickness absence among women who have recently given birth. We draw on a six-year panel taken from full population data from administrative sources. We find that in the 6% of families where fathers take out leave more than the standard quota (gender-neutral leave), the incidence of absence among mothers is reduced by about 5–10% from an average level of 20%.

Keywords: Parental leave; paternity quota; gender neutral leave; sickness absence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 J16 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2009-05-05
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:bergec:2009_006

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