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going on leave in Canada and Quebec. With reserved time for fathers
and high replacement level during parental leave, the study finds that
in Quebec fathers who were not necessarily interested in childcare took
the leave as it would otherwise be forfeited (Rehel 2013). Similar fathers
would not take leave in Canada or the USA where benefit levels were
not as beneficial. These less child oriented fathers seem to change their
perspective while being on leave and became more inclined to co-parenting
afterwards.
It is rare to establish causality between fathers’ leave use and the
continued division of household tasks or childcare, but some studies have
used reforms in the parental leave system in attempts to establish
causality. A Norwegian study measured the influence of the introduction
of the father’s quota in 1993 on gender equality of household division by
survey data (Kotsadam and Finseraas 2011). The study compares parents
with their last child born two years before and two years after the reform,
finding that conflict over household division decreases and that parents are
more likely to share the task of washing clothes after the reform. The study
also indicates a changed preference for spending time on childcare but no
effect on individual attitudes. A German study analyzed the 2007 reform of
parental leave, where the compensation became income-related and two
months were reserved for fathers, with regard to the effect on childcare
and household work (Schober 2014). The comparison of parents of children
born two years before and after the reform indicates an increase in fathers’
childcare but no effect on household work for either father or mother.
These results are not confirmed by Kluve and Tamm (2013), however,
who use a more selectivesample. In addition a relevant Swedish study
investigates the effects of the first reserved month on the division of care
of sick children with parents’ work absence but they find no effect (Ekberg
et al. 2013). The present study uses the same measure but a different
sample, method and follow-up period. We also with the same method
investigate the second reserved month. Most importantly, we find that the
parents of children born just before and after the reforms differ in their
characteristics and a difference in difference approach is necessary.
Effects of labor market exits can be considered a large research area, also
when only exits caused by parental leave are considered (Albrecht et al.
1999; Datta Gupta et al. 2008; Evertsson and Duvander 2010; Evertsson
2014b). The explanations for negative associations between parental leave
and continued labor market career vary from human capital deprivation,
shorter tenure or work experience, signals of lower work orientation to
statistical discrimination of women.
There are some studies that attempt to isolate the causal effect of leave
length through the reforms of reserving time for parental leave. The
results are somewhat inconsistent, both depending on sample, modeling,
observation period and measure. For Sweden Johansson (2010) finds that
parental leave use has negative short term effects on earnings but mainly
that fathers’ leave use positively affects mothers’ future earnings. Ekberg
et al. (2013), however, do not confirm any effect from the first reserved
month on wages, and another study investigating the labor supply finds
no effects from the reserved months (Karimi et al. 2012). Studies on the
Norwegian equivalent reform also indicate mixed results. Rege and Solli
(2013) find a negative effect on fathers’ earnings, but this is not found in
in Cools at al. (2011). Cools et al. use a strict measure of labor market