This paper evaluates the effect of a parental leave policy reform in Germany in 2007 on the pace of return to work of mothers with different family values background. Using a regression discontinuity design and an epidemiological approach to family values, the paper shows that the policy reform...

This paper argues that the pace to return to work after childbirth is not independent of family values. I evaluate the effect of a parental leave policy reform in Germany in 2007-aimed at incentivizing an earlier return to work - on the return to work of mothers who hold different family values....