Parental leave is one of the essential social policies that are at the center of welfare state development and family policies of countries. The components of parental leave policies is twofold; a) duration component (parental leave period): job protected leave period as the number of weeks after...

This paper examines the causal effects of a major change in the German parental leave benefits on fertility. I use the unanticipated reform of 2007 to assess how a move from a means-tested to an earnings-related benefit affects higher-order births. By using data from the Mikrozensus, I find that...

This paper examines the effects of a major change in German parental transfer system on fertility. I use the largely unanticipated reform of 2007 as a natural experiment to assess how an earnings-dependent parental leave benefit effects higher-order fertility. Given the recent introduction, this...

The introduction of the German parental leave benefit (Elterngeld) applied to all children born on 1 January, 2007 or later. The Elterngeld considerably changed the amount of transfers to families during the first two years postpartum. We show that the incentives created by using a cut-off date...

Numerous studies have investigated whether the provision and generosity of parental leave affects the employment and career prospects of women. Parental leave systems typically provide either short unpaid leave mandated by the firm, as in the US, or more generous and universal leave mandated by...