The effects of family policy on maternal labor supply: Combining evidence from a structural model and a quasi-experimental approach

Parental leave and subsidized child care are prominent examples of family policies supporting the reconciliation of family life and labor market careers for mothers. In this paper, we combine different empirical strategies to evaluate the employment effects of these policies for mothers with young c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Labour economics 2015-10, Vol.36, p.84-98
Main Authors: Geyer, Johannes, Haan, Peter, Wrohlich, Katharina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child care
Childcare costs
Family leave
Government subsidies
Labor supply
Natural experiment
Parental leave benefits
Quasi-experimental approach
Structural model
Studies
Welfare reform
Working mothers
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Summary:Parental leave and subsidized child care are prominent examples of family policies supporting the reconciliation of family life and labor market careers for mothers. In this paper, we combine different empirical strategies to evaluate the employment effects of these policies for mothers with young children. In particular we estimate a structural labor supply model and exploit quasi-experimental variation from a parental leave reform in Germany. Our findings suggest that a combination of parental leave benefits and subsidized child care leads to sizable employment effects of mothers. •We analyze the effects of family policy instruments on maternal labor supply•The evaluation is based on a structural model and on quasi-experimental methods•Both methods show that parental leave benefits affect employment of mothers•Combining parental leave and subsidized child care increases maternal labor supply
ISSN:0927-5371
1879-1034
DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2015.07.001