Measuring peer effects in parental leaves: evidence from a reform

Davide Dottori, Francesca Modena and Giulia Martina Tanzi ()
Additional contact information
Giulia Martina Tanzi: Bank of Italy

No 1399, Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: In this paper we estimate peer effects in parental leaves (PLs), analyzing whether mothers' choices may be influenced by prior decisions made by their female colleagues. We identify peer effects through an exogenous variation in the probability that peers take a PL driven by a reform implemented in Italy in 2015 which extended the time period over which parents can receive a paid PL, providing greater flexibility in its use. We focus on post-reform mothers and exploit the heterogeneity in the share of their peers who, due to their children's age, have been affected by the reform. Our findings show the existence of important peer effects: a 10 percentage point increase in the share of peers that took a PL in response to the reform results in mothers being 2.4 percentage points more likely to take a PL. We also find a positive effect on the amount of PLs taken and a negative effect on the probability of working part-time. As suggested by the heterogeneity analysis, signalling about employers' reaction to the use of PLs might be an important channel through which peer effects unfold.

Keywords: Peer effects; parental leave; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 D04 J13 J22 K31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-law, nep-lma and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/temi-dis ... 399/en_tema_1399.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1399_23

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().