Maternity Leave Legislation, Female Labor Supply, and the Family Wage Gap

By Uta Schönberg, Johannes Ludsteck. Social Science Research Network, 2007

154 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper analyzes the impact of expansions in leave coverage on mothers’ labor market outcomes after childbirth. The focus is on Germany, a country that underwent several changes in maternity leave legislation since the late 70s. We identify the causal impact of an expansion in maternity leave by comparing labor market outcomes of women who gave birth shortly (i.e. one month) before and after a change in maternity leave legislation. There is strong evidence that each expansion induced women to delay their return to work. Despite this strong short-term effect, the expansions had little impact on women’s labor supply in the long-run. The expansion from 2 to 6 months reduced women’s wages, even 8 years after childbirth. This effect is mostly explained by the delay in the return to work. The delay in the return to work caused by the expansions in leave from 6 to 10 months and 18 to 36 months also lowered wages. However, this negative effect is offset by a positive selection effect, resulting in a zero or even positive overall effect.

Subfields: Demography, Economics and Econometrics, Gender Studies

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/043a2e23b7c434b45eb8dad2c775d0d15923d75d

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Citations in the corpus

The Quantitative Role of Child Care for Female Labor Force Participation and Fertility (2016, background): “Based on the description in Ludsteck and Schoenberg (2007) non- and part-time working mothers receive in period one a maternity benefit of 2414.”
Parental leave regulations, mothers’ labor force attachment and fathers’ childcare involvement: evidence from a natural experiment (2013, methodology): “In accordance with findings for previous reforms of the parental leave system in Germany regarding job-protection (Schönberg and Ludsteck 2008), we find that the Elterngeld reform does seem to have an impact on the timing of re-entry into the labor market, but has very little or no impact on…”
How Does Parental Leave Affect Fertility and Return to Work? Evidence from Two Natural Experiments (2009, background): “Schönberg and Ludsteck (2007) study the causal effects of successive changes in PL duration on employment and earnings in Germany.2 Our paper adds to this literature in at least four ways.”