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2. Oktober 2013

SOEP Brown Bag Seminar

Maternity Leave in the Context of Couples

Termin

2. Oktober 2013
12:30-13:30

Ort

Eleanor-Dulles-Raum
DIW Berlin im Quartier 110
Room 5.2.010
Mohrenstraße 58
10117 Berlin

Sprecher*innen

Stefanie Hoherz (ISER, University of Essex)
The proposed research focuses on maternity leave duration and re-entry into full- and part-time employment for mothers in Germany. Numerous authors have investigated this subject in order to find out how women's characteristics, combined with family policies and the children's characteristics, influence the re-entries. However, these studies have been limited by their one-sided concentration on the female partner. In answer to this shortcoming, this analysis purposes to study both partners, individually and as a couple. The first part looks at widely accepted covariates and complements these with information on the male partner and relations between both partners, while the second concentrates on occupational uncertainties within both partners' careers.The empirical analysis focuses on the first twenty-two years of post-reunification Germany, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). Proportional hazards models are used to estimate the re-entries of 2881 mothers in maternity leave. Results show that couples generally assess the re-entry decision on the basis of economic considerations. While the re-entry into part-time employment is primarily affected by the mother's own resources and former career, the return to full-time is more linked to the partner's resources. This utility maximizing act is especially prevalent in families where the mother has a high earning potential, a group having the highest re-entry chances for mothers, especially into full-time employment.

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