10(38)
will lead to a more equal sharing of responsibility for childcare and
housework. Therefore it is important that the father uses parental leave
early in the child’s life.
It is thus
meaningful to analyze the effect of the
three reforms 20 months after the introduction of each reform.
Also, the intensity of use is highest, and a majority of the parental
leave days are used, when the child is young (in this study 75 to 95
percent are used during the first 20 months, depending on when
the sample is drawn).
Ekberg et al (2005) show that fathers’ use of
parental leave when the child is over two years old is for shorter periods
and to a large extent related to summer and seasonal holidays.
Analyzing
the effect of the reforms at the same point in time may thus provide
insights
into how reforms operate and affect parents’ patterns of usage of
parental leave.
