Barefoot and in a German kitchen: Federal parental leave and benefit policy and the return to work after childbirth in Germany

Katharina Spiess (), Jan Ondrich and Qing Yang
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Jan Ondrich: Department of Economics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-3114, USA
Qing Yang: Department of Economics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-3114, USA

Journal of Population Economics, 1996, vol. 9, issue 3, 247-266

Abstract: Since 1979 German federal maternity leave and benefit policy has given women incentives to stay at home and take care of their newborn and youngest children. In 1986 this leave and benefit policy was changed in several ways, turning it into a powerful instrument for delaying mothers` return to work after childbirth. Using a flexible duration dependence estimation technique for proportional hazards due to Prentice and Gloeckler (1978) and applied to grouped durations by Meyer (1987, 1990), we estimate post childbirth return to work hazards for women during the federally protected leave protection period and immediately upon completion of this leave period. During the leave mothers are less likely to return to work the longer is the time left in the leave protection period; however, this result cannot be attributed generally to high levels of maternity benefits. When the leave protection period ends, mothers with strong labor force attachment who are still on leave return to their jobs.

Keywords: Maternity; leave; ·; childbirth; ·; labor; force; participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
Note: Received August 30, 1995 / Accepted June 18, 1996
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