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Müller, Kai-Uwe, Michael Neumann & Katharina Wrohlich (2018): Labor supply under participation and hours constraints. (DIW-Diskussionspapiere 1758), Berlin, 50 S.

Abstract

"The paper extends a static discrete-choice labor supply model by adding participation and hours constraints. We identify restrictions by survey information on the eligibility and search activities of individuals as well as actual and desired hours. This provides for a more robust identification of preferences and constraints. Both, preferences and restrictions are allowed to vary by and are related through observed and unobserved characteristics. We distinguish various restrictions mechanisms: labor demand rationing, working hours norms varying across occupations, and insufficient public childcare on the supply side of the market. The effect of these mechanisms is simulated by relaxing different constraints at a time. We apply the empirical framework to evaluate an in-work benefit for low-paid parents in the German institutional context. The benefit is supposed to increase work incentives for secondary earners. Based on the structural model we are able to disentangle behavioral reactions into the pure incentive effect and the limiting impact of constraints at the intensive and extensive margin. We find that the in-work benefit for parents substantially increases working hours of mothers of young children, especially when they have a low education. Simulating the effects of restrictions shows their substantial impact on employment of mothers with young children." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Nitsche, Natalie & Daniel Grunow (2018): Do economic resources play a role in bargaining child care in couples? Parental investment in cases of matching and mismatching gender ideologies in Germany. In: European Societies, Jg. 20, H. 5, S. 785-815. DOI:10.1080/14616696.2018.1473626

Abstract

"This paper examines the factors associated with a gendered division of childcare among parents in Germany. While much is known on the gender division of housework in families and the economic and sociological factors that may be driving it, we still know relatively little about whether and how these factors may affect the division of unpaid childcare in families. We first assess the relevance of partner's combined gender ideologies and relative resources on the division of unpaid childcare. Second, we assess whether the effect of economic resources may be contingent on the partners' agreement or disagreement on gender ideologies concerning maternal employment. We address these questions using data from the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam) and MLM Growth Curve Models. Our findings consistently show a significant positive effect of partners' combined gender ideologies and her share of income on his share of childcare. These effects are strongest, and robust, among couples with matching ideologies supporting maternal employment, which we term 'egalitarian island' couples. Economically efficient divisions of childcare thus appear dependent upon the couples' ideological pairing and on mothers' ideologies towards maternal employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Zitatform

Osuna, Victoria (2018): What accounts for the increase in female labor force participation in Spain. (Economics. Discussion papers 2018-06), Kiel, 29 S.

Abstract

"Over the last three decades, Spanish female labor force participation (LFP) has tremendously increased, particularly, that of married women. At the same time, the income tax structure, the fiscal treatment of families, policies to reconcile family and work, and the education distribution of married couples have substantially changed. By contrast, the gender wage gap has remained quite stable. In this paper the author investigates the relevance of these factors in accounting for the growth in Spanish married women labor force participation from 1994 to 2008. For that purpose, she uses Kaygusuz (Taxes and female labor supply, 2010) model of household labor market participation, and data from Eurostat to calibrate the model and evaluate its performance. The model successfully accounts for the rise in aggregate female labor force participation, and matches hours worked by males and females. The model is also able to replicate the pattern of female labor force participation by age and education. From this analysis we can conclude that changes in tax rates and in the education distribution are the main factors behind the increase in female LFP during the late nineties, while changes in child care costs and earning profiles are mainly responsible for the subsequent growth in the 2000s." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Park, Seonyoung (2018): A structural explanation of recent changes in life-cycle labor supply and fertility behavior of married women in the United States. In: European Economic Review, Jg. 102, H. February, S. 129-168. DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.11.006

Abstract

"This study documents and explains important changes in the life-cycle labor supply and fertility behavior of married women in the United States from the 1950s to more recent cohorts. The younger cohorts, relative to the 1950s, supply more labor at earlier stages of the life-cycle, delay motherhood to later stages without reducing the fertility rate, and upon childbearing, show a greater tendency to stay out of the labor force. In a life-cycle model for married couples in which a household makes decisions on fertility as well as labor supply, consumption, and savings, all the behavioral changes are jointly and quantitatively explained by a combination of changes in various labor supply/fertility determinants, with the increased returns (penalties) to work (non-work) experience being the dominant contributor. The results survive a series of robustness tests, including endogenizing education choice and assortative marriage." (Author's abstract, © 2017 Elsevier) ((en))

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Stier, Haya, Noah Lewin-Epstein & Michael Braun (2018): Institutional change and women's work patterns along the family life course. In: Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Jg. 57, H. October, S. 46-55. DOI:10.1016/j.rssm.2018.07.001

Zitatform

Yang, Tzu-Ting (2018): Family labor supply and the timing of cash transfers. Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit. In: The Journal of Human Resources, Jg. 53, H. 2, S. 445-473. DOI:10.3368/jhr.53.2.0115-6857R1

Abstract

"This paper exploits the unique disbursement timing and benefit rules of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to provide new evidence on how families adjust their labor supply in response to receiving anticipated cash transfers. I find that income seasonality caused by EITC receipt leads to changes in the intra-year labor supply patterns of married women. On average, receiving a $1,000 payment significantly reduces the proportion of married women who work, by 1.3 percentage points, in the month when the EITC is received. Additionally, this labor supply response is mainly driven by those who are secondary earners or liquidity-constrained." (Author's abstract, © the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System) ((en))

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Altintas, Evrim & Oriel Sullivan (2017): Trends in fathers' contribution to housework and childcare under different welfare policy regimes. In: Social Politics, Jg. 24, H. 1, S. 81-108. DOI:10.1093/sp/jxw007

Abstract

"This article brings up to date welfare regime differences in the time fathers spend on childcare and core housework, using Multinational Time Use Study data (1971 - 2010) from fifteen countries. Although Nordic fathers continue to set the bar, the results provide some support for the idea of a catch-up in core housework among Southern regime fathers. The results also suggest an increasing polarization in Liberal countries, whereby fathers who were meaningfully involved in family life were increasingly likely to spend more time doing core housework and, particularly, childcare. Fathers living in Corporatist countries have been least responsive to change." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ayala, Luis & Milagros Paniagua (2017): The impact of in-work benefits on female labor supply and income distribution in Spain. (EUROMOD working paper 2017,17), Colchester: EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, 36 S.

Abstract

"In-work benefits (IWBs) have become very common transfer programs that seek to meet both efficiency and equity targets. An expanding literature has assessed the effects of these policies on income distribution and labor supply showing important implications for female labor participation. In this paper, we estimate the distributional and behavioral impacts of a simulated IWB in Spain based on the replacement of the existing working mother tax credit (WMTC) using as a reference the US Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). We simulate the effects of the proposed scheme using EUROMOD and a discrete choice model of labor supply. Our results show that the enhancement of the proposed IWB would have significant and positive effects both in terms of female labor participation and inequality and poverty reduction. The introduction of this IWB would generate a substantial increase in labor participation at the extensive margin and a non-negligible reduction at the intensive margin." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Barigozzi, Francesca, Helmuth Cremer & Kerstin Roeder (2017): Women's career choices, social norms and child care policies. (IZA discussion paper 10502), Bonn, 34 S.

Abstract

"Our model explains the observed gender-specific patterns of career and child care choices through endogenous social norms. We study how these norms interact with the gender wage gap. We show that via the social norm a couple's child care and career choices impose an externality on other couples, so that the laissez-faire is inefficient. We use our model to study the design and effectiveness of three commonly used policies. We find that child care subsidies and women quotas can be effective tools to mitigate or eliminate the externality. Parental leave, however, may even intensify the externality and decrease welfare." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bernhardt, Janine (2017): Geschlechter(un)gerechtigkeit: Zur Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf. In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, Jg. 67, H. 30/31, S. 28-33.

Abstract

"Während sich viele Mütter mehr Teilhabe am Erwerbsleben wünschen, wollen viele Väter mehr Zeit für Familie haben. Die geschlechts-spezifische Aufteilung von Erwerbs- und Sorgearbeit hat gravierende Folgen für Geschlechterungleichheiten im Lebensverlauf." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Bick, Alexander & Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln (2017): Taxation and labor supply of married couples across countries. A macroeconomic analysis. (IZA discussion paper 10504), Bonn, 39 S.

Abstract

"We document contemporaneous differences in the aggregate labor supply of married couples across 17 European countries and the US. Based on a model of joint household decision making, we quantify the contribution of international differences in non-linear labor income taxes and consumption taxes to the international differences in hours worked in the data. Through the lens of the model, taxes, together with wages and the educational composition, account for a significant part of the small differences in married men's and the large differences in married women's hours worked in the data. Taking the full nonlinearities of labor income tax codes, including the tax treatment of married couples, into account is crucial for generating the low cross-country correlation between married men's and women's hours worked in the data, and for explaining the variation of married women's hours worked across European countries." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Boll, Christina & Andreas Lagemann (2017): Public childcare and maternal labour supply. New evidence for Germany. (HWWI research paper 180), Hamburg, 34 S.

Abstract

"This study explores the linkage between nine policy indicators of public childcare provision and maternal employment in terms of employment propensity and (conditional) working hours. We apply different identification strategies with a two-way fixed effects specification with individual and macro-level confounders as well as year and state fixed effects as our most ambitious specification. Based on German microcensus data for waves 2006-2014, our findings show that identification, particularly in terms of state fixed effects, is crucial for the estimated effects. For three indicators however, we are left with significant associations even in the most complex model: For 1-2 year old children cared for by a childminder (3-5 year old children in daycare centres), an increase in the share of children taken care for less than 25 weekly hours on all same-age children attending public care by 10 percentage points is associated with a decrease of maternal employment propensity by 2 (4) percentage points. Thirdly, the existence of a legal claim on childcare from the age of one is associated with an increase in weekly working hours by 4.3 %, compared to a situation without such an entitlement. Compared to medium-level educated mothers, associations with respect to employment propensity are stronger (weaker) for mothers with a high (low) educational level whereas hours associations are weaker for highly skilled mothers. Compared to mothers in couples, single mothers respond less sensitively concerning both the extensive and the intensive margin of employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Brewer, Mike & Sahra Cattan (2017): Universal pre-school and labor supply of mothers. In: ifo DICE report, Jg. 15, H. 2, S. 8-12.

Abstract

Der Ausbau der Vorschulerziehung wurde in den letzten 30 Jahren in vielen Ländern vorangetrieben. Hiermit sollte die kindliche Entwicklung gefördert, soziale Unterschiede ausgeglichen und die Beschäftigung von Müttern gesteigert werden. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die empirische Literatur zum Zusammenhang von Vorschulerziehung und der Erwerbsbeteiligung von Müttern in OECD-Staaten. Es zeigt sich, dass das Angebot einer subventionierten Vorschulbildung in den untersuchten Ländern sehr unterschiedliche Auswirkungen auf die Erwerbsbeteiligung hat. So kam es in einigen Ländern, wie Spanien, Argentinien und Kanada zur erheblichen Steigerungen der Müttererwerbstätigkeit, während es in den USA und einigen nordischen Ländern nahezu keinen Einfluss hatte. (IAB)

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Gehringer, Agnieszka & Stephan Klasen (2017): Labor force participation of women in the EU - what role do family policies play? In: Labour, Jg. 31, H. 1, S. 15-42. DOI:10.1111/labr.12085

Abstract

"We empirically study the role of different family policies in affecting women's labor market behavior in the European Union. Women tend to assume more family duties than men and, consequently, often participate less in the labor market. Family policies aim to support families in general while a particular focus is on helping women to reconcile family duties with labor market participation. Their impact, however, is not clear, especially when it comes to different forms of labor market activity. We use a static and dynamic panel econometric framework examining the link between financial support for four types of family policies and labor force participation as well as (part-time and full-time) employment. The results suggest no stable significant impact of expenditures on family policies on overall labor force participation. However, higher spending on family allowance, cash benefits, and daycare benefits appears to promote part-time employment, whereas only spending on parental leave schemes is a significant positive determinant of women's full-time employment." (Author's abstract, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Schadler, Cornelia, Irene Rieder, Eva-Maria Schmidt, Ulrike Zartler & Rudolf Richter (2017): Key practices of equality within long parental leaves. In: Journal of European social policy, Jg. 27, H. 3, S. 247-259. DOI:10.1177/0958928716685688

Abstract

"The birth of a child often reinforces an unequal division of employment and care work among heterosexual couples. Parental leave programmes that foster long leaves tend to increase this inequality within couples. However, by investigating a particularly long parental leave system, we show that specific practices enable parents to share care work equally. Our ethnographic study includes interviews with heterosexual couples, observations in prenatal classes and information material available to parents. Specific sets of practices - managing economic security, negotiating employment, sharing information with peers and feeding practices - involved parents who shared care work equally and parents who divided care work unequally. Contingent on specific situated practices, the arrangement of care work shifted in an equal or unequal direction. Even within long parental leaves, equality between parents was facilitated when economic security was provided through means other than income, when work hours were flexible, mothers had a close relationship to work, information on sharing equally was available and children were bottle-fed. Consequently, an equal share of care work is not the effect of solely structural, individual, cultural or normative matters, but of their entanglement in practices." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Schober, Pia & Christian Schmitt (2017): Day-care availability, maternal employment and satisfaction of parents. Evidence from cultural and policy variations in Germany. In: Journal of European social policy, Jg. 27, H. 5, S. 433-446. DOI:10.1177/0958928716688264

Abstract

"This study investigates how the availability and expansion of childcare services for children aged under 3 years relate to the subjective wellbeing of German mothers and fathers. It extends previous studies by examining in more detail the relationship between day-care availability and use, maternal employment and parental subjective wellbeing during early childhood in a country with expanding childcare services and varying work - care cultures. The empirical analysis links annual day-care attendance rates at the county-level to individual-level data of the Socio-Economic Panel Study for 2007 - 2012 and the 'Families in Germany' Study for 2010 - 2012. We apply fixed-effects panel models to samples of 2002 couples and 376 lone mothers. We find some evidence of a positive effect of the day-care expansion only on satisfaction with family life for lone mothers and for full-time employed partnered mothers. Transitions to full-time employment are associated with reductions in subjective wellbeing irrespective of local day-care availability among partnered mothers in West Germany but not in East Germany. These results suggest that varying work - care cultures between East and West Germany are more important moderators of the relationship between maternal employment and satisfaction than short-term regional expansions of childcare services." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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White, Linda A. (2017): Which ideas, whose norms? Comparing the relative influence of international organizations on paid maternity and parental leave policies in liberal welfare states. In: Social Politics, Jg. 24, H. 1, S. 55-80. DOI:10.1093/sp/jxw010

Abstract

"This article examines the adoption of paid maternity and parental leave policies in the liberal welfare states of Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and investigates the domestic and international sources of policy ideas. Through comparative analysis using mainly qualitative techniques of analysis of primary and secondary sources and elite interviews, the article examines the decision-making processes in each of these jurisdictions. It finds the relative influence of international organizations to be rather limited in comparison to domestic sources of influence, including the election of leftist governments under sympathetic party leaders and in the context of human capital concerns." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Zoch, Gundula & Irina Hondralis (2017): The expansion of low-cost, state-subsidized childcare availability and mothers' return-to-work behaviour in East and West Germany. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 33, H. 5, S. 693-707. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcx068

Abstract

"This study investigates whether increased availability of low-cost, state-subsidized childcare for under 3-year-olds in Germany is associated with shorter employment interruptions amongst mothers. By focusing on a major childcare reform in East and West Germany, we examine the effect in two contexts that differ markedly in the acceptance and use of formal childcare and maternal employment. We combine rich longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (2006 - 2014) with annual administrative county-level data on the availability of low-cost, state-subsidized childcare, estimating event history models. The results indicate that increased childcare availability for under 3-year-olds reduces mothers' employment interruptions, particularly after a second childbirth, and increases the probability of returning to part-time or full-time employment as opposed to marginal employment. Furthermore, increased availability of low-cost, state-subsidized childcare increases mothers' likelihood of returning to employment in the second year after childbirth, when paid leave entitlements expire and the availability of childcare becomes important. However, our results are only statistically significant for West German mothers and only after the birth of a second child. The study extends the literature on women's return-to-work behaviour by providing evidence on the medium-term impact of family policy on the duration of mothers' employment interruptions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bastani, Spencer, Ylva Moberg & Hakan Selin (2016): Estimating participation responses using transfer program reform. (Working papers / Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy 2016,01), Uppsala, 49 S.

Abstract

"In this paper we estimate labor force participation responses for married women in Sweden using population-wide register data and detailed information about individuals' budget sets. For identification we exploit a reform in the system for housing allowances in 1997 which affected participation tax rates for households with/without children differently. Using a simple theoretical framework we provide a structural interpretation of our estimates and highlight how the employment response depends on the employment level. Our central estimate of the participation elasticity is 0.13. When splitting the treated sample into four quartiles based on the wife's skill level we find that the participation elasticity is more than twice as large for the lowest-skill sample than for the highest-skill sample." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bick, Alexander (2016): The quantitative role of child care for female labor force participation and fertility. In: Journal of the European Economic Association, Jg. 14, H. 3, S. 639-668. DOI:10.1111/jeea.12143

Abstract

"I document that the labor force participation rate of West German mothers with children aged zero to two exceeds the corresponding child-care enrollment rate, while the opposite is true for mothers whose children are older than two but below the mandatory schooling age. These facts also hold for a cross-section of E.U. countries. I develop a life-cycle model that explicitly accounts for this age-dependent relationship by including various types of nonpaid and paid child care. I calibrate this model to data for West Germany and use the calibrated model for policy analysis. Increasing the supply of subsidized child care for children aged zero to two generates an increase in the maternal labor force participation rate consistent with empirical evidence from other settings; however, this increase is too small to conclude that the lack of subsidized child care accounts for the low labor force participation rate of mothers with children aged zero to two. The response along the intensive margin suggests that a large fraction of part-time working mothers would work full-time if they had greater access to subsidized child care. Finally, making subsidized child care available to more women does not achieve one of the commonly stated goals of such reforms, namely to increase the fertility rate." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))