The Economic Consequences of Parental Leave Mandates: Lessons from Europe
Open accessAbstract
This study investigates the economic consequences of rights to paid parental leave in nine European countries over the 1969 through 1993 period. Since women use virtually all parental leave in most nations, men constitute a reasonable comparison group, and most of the analysis examines how changes in paid leave affect the gap between female and male labor market outcomes. The employment-to-populations ratios of women in their prime childbearing years are also compared with those of corresponding aged men and older females. Parental leave is associated with increases in women's employment, but with reductions in their relative wages at extended durations.
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On average, the provision of paid leave produces a slight increase in the proportion of women engaged in paid work.
“The available evidence suggests that, on average, the provision of paid leave produces a slight increase in the proportion of women engaged in paid work ( Del Boca et al., 2007;Jaumotte, 2003;Ruhm, 1998;and, Thévenon and Solaz, 2013).”
From Drivers of Female Labour Force Participation in the OECD (2013) · cites this paper as Ruhm, 1998
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Research works printed but not linked: 31
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Datta Gupta, N., Smith, N., & Verner, M. (2008) · Review of Economics of the Household · doi:10.1007/s11150-007-9023-0 · Cited by 206 · see citing works
Drivers of Female Labour Force Participation in the OECD
(2013) · OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers · doi:10.1787/5k46cvrgnms6-en · Cited by 177 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ruhm, C. J.
- Affiliations
- National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ruhm, C. J.
- ORCID
- Ruhm, C. J.
- Venue
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1998-02-01
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 285-317
- ISSN
- 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-4650
- OpenAlex
- W2097240475
- Cited by
- 858
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 55 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 37 · 2015: 55 · 2014: 38 · 2013: 38 · 2012: 50
- FWCI
- 31.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- libres.uncg.edu
- Locations
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics (publishedVersion)
- NC Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Work-Family Balance Challenges
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Labour Market and Migration
- Keywords
- paid parental leave, gender pay gap, women's employment, female labor force participation, employment-to-population ratio, leave duration, women's wages, labor market outcomes, gender equality in the workplace
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