Can an egalitarian reform in the parental leave system reduce the motherhood labor penalty? Some evidence from Spain

The article analyzes how an egalitarian reform in the parental leave system may reduce the motherhood penalty. We used a sample of heterosexual dual-earner couples, with children between 3-8 years old, residing in Madrid and its metropolitan area. We show, first, that the introduction of a 13-day pa...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Fernández Cornejo, José Andrés, Pozo García, Eva María Del, Escot Mangas, Lorenzo, Castellanos Serrano, María Cristina
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/19050
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/19050
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Paternity leave
Father involvement
Motherhood penalty
Policy reform
Permiso de paternidad
Implicación del padre
Penalización por maternidad
Cambio de política
Derecho laboral
Trabajo
Descripción
Sumario:The article analyzes how an egalitarian reform in the parental leave system may reduce the motherhood penalty. We used a sample of heterosexual dual-earner couples, with children between 3-8 years old, residing in Madrid and its metropolitan area. We show, first, that the introduction of a 13-day paternity leave increased significantly the average number of days that employed fathers were off work after the birth or adoption of a child. Second, we found some empirical evidence that fathers who took longer leaves tended to be subsequently more involved in the care of their children. And third, we obtained some evidence in favor of the hypotheses that when the father is actively involved in the care of his child the mother tends to experience less work penalty. We also considered the effect of other variables such as having egalitarian gender attitudes, working in a family-friendly company, earnings and the working week.