ZOOM

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86779791842
Meeting ID: 867 7979 1842
Passcode: 996893

Authors:

Adèle Lemoine (Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Sonja Spitzer (Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences)

 

Abstract:

Fathers’ participation in childcare is central to the division of paid and unpaid work within couples and may also shape family dynamics, including fertility and union stability. We study a major parenting leave reform in Austria that encouraged fathers’ participation in childcare by introducing co-parent leave benefits, several measures to promote parental leave sharing and greater flexibility in parental leave use. Austria is a critical case because it combines generous parental leave with long maternal employment interruptions and a conservative division of childcare. Using population-wide register data and a regression discontinuity design based on the birth-date eligibility cutoff, we first examine whether the reform changed fathers’ leave-taking and division of childcare. We then assess effects on subsequent fertility, birth spacing and union dissolution. The reform increased fathers’ co-parent leave take-up by 4.5 percentage points, but did not increase fathers’ parental leave take-up or duration, equal leave sharing, or mothers’ return to employment. Consistent with this limited behavioral response, we find no effects on subsequent family dynamics. Take-up was concentrated among more advantaged fathers, pointing to persistent institutional, socioeconomic and normative barriers to fathers’ leave-taking.