Female Labor Supply and Parental Leave Benefits: The Causal Effect of Paying Higher Transfers for a Shorter Period of Time

Referierte Aufsätze Web of Science

Annette Bergemann, Regina T. Riphahn

In: Applied Economics Letters 18 (2011), 1, 17-21

Abstract

We study the labour supply effects of a major change in child-subsidy policy in Germany in 2007 designed to increase both fertility and shorten birth-related employment interruptions. The reform involved a move from a means-tested maternity leave benefit system that paid a maximum of 300 Euro for up to 2 years to a benefit system that replaced two-thirds of pre-birth earnings for at most 1 year. As the reform took place very recently, we estimate the labour supply effect by using data drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) on the intention of women to return to the labour market. Our results show that the reform yields most of the intended effects: the fraction of mothers who plan to return to the labour market within a year after the interview increased by 14 percentage points.

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