 Where Are the Fathers? Effects of Earmarking Parental Leave for Fathers in FranceHélène Périvier and Gregory Verdugo ILR Review, 2024, vol. 77, issue 1, 88-118 Abstract: Does providing nontransferable months of parental leave earmarked for fathers, as mandated by the European Union to its member countries since 2019, increase their participation? To answer that question, the authors investigate the consequences of a 2015 French reform that designated up to 12 months of paid leave for fathers while simultaneously reducing the maximum paid leave for mothers by the same number of months. Although the benefits were low, parental leave could be taken on a part-time basis, which can be more attractive to fathers. Using administrative data and comparing parents of children born before and after the reform, the authors find that in response to a 25 percentage point (pp) decline in mothers’ participation rate triggered by the reform, fathers’ participation increased by less than 1 pp, primarily through part-time leave. The reform increased mothers’ labor earnings, but it had no significant impact on fathers’ earnings. Overall, the substitutability of parental leave between parents appears to be low and, as a result, earmarking alone does not substantially increase fathers’ participation. Keywords: parental leave; labor supply; gender inequality; policy analysis; part-time employment (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:77:y:2024:i:1:p:88-118 DOI: 10.1177/00197939231201570 Access Statistics for this article More articles in ILR Review from Cornell University, ILR School |
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