The impact of paternity leave mandates on women's employment in the OECD countries
Date
2020-11
Authors
Fernández Bettelli, Malena
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Gibbons, Amelia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía
Abstract
Women's Labour Force Participation Rates in the OECD countries are still much lower than
men's. Literature attributes this persistent gap to the \motherhood penalty". Family leave
policies tried to reduce this gap, but extended leaves seem to have backfired as they fueled a
gender specialization between paid and unpaid work. Many countries introduced father-specific
leave entitlements with the purpose of increasing their involvement in household labour and
foster women employment. This paper studies the effect of paternity leave policies on female
employment rates in 31 OECD countries. This analysis exploits the fact that each country
introduced this policy in different years to estimate a difference-in-differences model. We find
that paternity leave policies are associated with a 4.9% increase in female Labour Force Participation
Rate. This result suggests that father-specific leave policies fulfilled the promise of
fostering gender equality in the labour market.
Description
Fil: Fernández Bettelli, Malena. Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía; Argentina.