17(38)
days in both the control and treatment groups and mothers’ use of parental
leave days was on average about 253 days in both groups.
Table 2
Parental leave use during the child’s first 20 months
Control group Treatment group
First reserved month
Men
23.4***
31.2***
Women
317.5***
290.5***
Second reserved month
Men
37.3***
42.9***
Women
268.0***
275.4***
Gender equality bonus
Men
48.8
47.8
Women
253.3
253.1
*** Significant difference (1 percent level) between control and treatment groups.
** Significant difference (5 percent level) between control and treatment groups.
Note:
The children in the treatment and control groups are born:
Control group
Treatment group
First reserved month
December 18 - December
31, 1994
January 1 - January 14
1995
Second reserved month
December 18 - December
31, 2001
January 1 - January 14,
2002
Gender equality bonus
June 17 - June 30, 2008
July 1 - July 14,2008
Another way to evaluate the potential impact of the reforms is to compare
the proportion of users at various levels of use. Table 2 presents the
proportion of fathers and mothers who used any parental leave days, the
proportion who used more than 30 days and the proportion who used
more than 60 parental leave days in the control and treatment groups.
Remember that we only investigate use during the child’s first 20 months
and that the final proportions for the whole period of leave use will be
higher. Since none of the reforms have had any impact on the proportion of
mothers who use parental leave, the discussion in this section will restrict
itself to fathers' use of parental leave days.
The proportion of fathers’ using any parental leave increased sharply from
40.0 for fathers whose children were born just before the first reserved
month was introduced to 68.6 percent for fathers whose children were born
just after the introduction. The proportion of fathers who used more than
30 days increased from 21.0 percent to 27.8 percent, whereas the change
in the group using more than 60 days is negligible.
As with the introduction of the first reserved month, the proportion of
fathers using any parental leave and more than 30 parental leave days
increased after the introduction of the second reserved month. The
proportion using any parental leave increased from 65.2 percent to 70.1
percent and the proportion of fathers using more than 30 days of parental
leave increased from 34.7 percent in the control group to 46.2 percent in
the treatment group. The largest change thus takes place in the group
using more than 30 days, which is exactly what the second reserved month
aimed for. Also, the proportion using more than 60 days increased from
21.1 percent to 24.3 percent.
The results 20 months after the introduction of the gender equality bonus
show that the reform did not lead to any statistically significant changes in
