Parental leave and child care are important instruments of family policies to improve work– family balance. This paper studies the impact of the substantial change in Germany’s parental leave system on maternal employment. The aim of the reform was to decrease birth-related maternal...

We study the short, medium, and longer run employment effects of a substantial change in the parental leave benefit program in Germany. In 2007, a means-tested parental leave transfer program that had paid benefits for up to two years was replaced by an earnings related transfer which paid...

This study analyzes the effect of fathers' parental leave-taking on the time fathers spend with their children and on mothers' and fathers' labor supply. Fathers' leave-taking is highly selective and the identification of causal effects relies on within-father differences in leave-taking for...

We study the short, medium, and longer run employment effects of a substantial change in the parental leave benefit program in Germany. In 2007, a means-tested parental leave transfer program that had paid benefits for up to two years was replaced by an earnings related transfer which paid...

This study analyzes the effect of fathers' parental leave-taking on the time fathers spend with their children and on mothers' and fathers' labor supply. Fathers' leave-taking is highly selective and the identification of causal effects relies on within-father differences in leave-taking for...

This study focuses on changes in the length of paid parental leave in Austria, France and Hungary between the 1960s and the first decade of the 2000s. Its aim is to analyse to what extent extensions and reductions of the duration of paid parental leave affect mothers' labour market entry after...

In 1985, Gary Becker predicted employment and childcare sex gaps may ‘disappear or be greatly attenuated in the near future.’ In this article, I examine trends in the employment gap between mothers and fathers of young children over the last 40 years. I review theoretical explanations for...