Pub Date : 2025-06-29DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102749
Mery Ferrando , Véronique Gille
Can role models from the same group enhance educational outcomes of disadvantaged minority students? We analyze the election of Douglas Wilder in Virginia in 1989, who was the first Black American to serve as governor in the US. Results from a triple difference and an event-study approach demonstrate increased educational attainment among Black individuals in Virginia after the election. Using an original survey and secondary data, we provide suggestive evidence that a role model effect may be driving these results. Our findings thus suggest that increasing exposure to Black politicians in high-profile positions might contribute to narrowing the White-Black gap in education in the US.
{"title":"Does the identity of leaders matter for education? Evidence from the first black governor in the US","authors":"Mery Ferrando , Véronique Gille","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102749","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102749","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Can role models from the same group enhance educational outcomes of disadvantaged minority students? We analyze the election of Douglas Wilder in Virginia in 1989, who was the first Black American to serve as governor in the US. Results from a triple difference and an event-study approach demonstrate increased educational attainment among Black individuals in Virginia after the election. Using an original survey and secondary data, we provide suggestive evidence that a role model effect may be driving these results. Our findings thus suggest that increasing exposure to Black politicians in high-profile positions might contribute to narrowing the White-Black gap in education in the US.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102749"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144534974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-23DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102751
Pawel Adrjan , Gabriele Ciminelli , Alexandre Judes , Michael Koelle , Cyrille Schwellnus , Tara M. Sinclair
Remote work surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. To analyze its post-pandemic persistency, we construct an original dataset measuring remote and hybrid work (WFH) in 20 OECD countries and 55 occupations from January 2019 to December 2023, based on over 1 billion job postings from the global job site Indeed. The share of job postings advertising WFH more than quadrupled from about 2.5 % to around 11 % between January 2020 and January 2023 in the average country in our sample, continuing to grow even after pandemic-related restrictions were phased out. Exploiting changes in pandemic severity across countries and differences in the feasibility of remote work across occupations in a difference-in-differences design, we find that increases in pandemic severity substantially raised advertised WFH, but pandemic easing had no effect. We then use job search data to document persistently high interest in WFH from jobseekers and conclude that the post-pandemic persistency of WFH may partly be a response by employers to demand for flexibility from workers.
{"title":"Working from home after COVID-19: Evidence from job postings in 20 countries","authors":"Pawel Adrjan , Gabriele Ciminelli , Alexandre Judes , Michael Koelle , Cyrille Schwellnus , Tara M. Sinclair","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102751","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102751","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Remote work surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. To analyze its post-pandemic persistency, we construct an original dataset measuring remote and hybrid work (WFH) in 20 OECD countries and 55 occupations from January 2019 to December 2023, based on over 1 billion job postings from the global job site Indeed. The share of job postings advertising WFH more than quadrupled from about 2.5 % to around 11 % between January 2020 and January 2023 in the average country in our sample, continuing to grow even after pandemic-related restrictions were phased out. Exploiting changes in pandemic severity across countries and differences in the feasibility of remote work across occupations in a difference-in-differences design, we find that increases in pandemic severity substantially raised advertised WFH, but pandemic easing had no effect. We then use job search data to document persistently high interest in WFH from jobseekers and conclude that the post-pandemic persistency of WFH may partly be a response by employers to demand for flexibility from workers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102751"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144338876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-23DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102739
Tunga Kantarcı , Jim Been , Arthur van Soest , Daniël van Vuuren
We evaluate partial retirement options as an instrument to increase labor participation among older individuals. In a stated choice experiment, Dutch survey respondents were asked to choose among early, late and partial retirement scenarios purged from restrictions on part-time work and gradual retirement. Retirement scenario characteristics were randomized, generating rich variation in the choice options. The stated choices are validated using revealed preference data on (planned) retirement decisions. Using the stated choice data, we estimate a model that makes the trade-offs between leisure and income over the life cycle explicit, and use the estimated model for counterfactual policy simulations. We find that, as expected, higher (full) pension eligibility ages make actuarially fair (abrupt) early retirement more attractive and make late retirement less attractive, while about one in three respondents prefer partial retirement irrespective of the eligibility age. Early retirement becomes more attractive than late retirement when individuals do not have the partial retirement option. Moreover, the partial retirement decision is sensitive to financial incentives so that subsidizing partial retirement with higher wages or with more than actuarially fair pension increases for delaying retirement increases total labor supply. These findings demonstrate the potential of partial retirement as a policy instrument to stimulate labor participation, especially when pension eligibility is delayed.
{"title":"Partial retirement opportunities and the labor supply of older individuals","authors":"Tunga Kantarcı , Jim Been , Arthur van Soest , Daniël van Vuuren","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102739","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102739","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We evaluate partial retirement options as an instrument to increase labor participation among older individuals. In a stated choice experiment, Dutch survey respondents were asked to choose among early, late and partial retirement scenarios purged from restrictions on part-time work and gradual retirement. Retirement scenario characteristics were randomized, generating rich variation in the choice options. The stated choices are validated using revealed preference data on (planned) retirement decisions. Using the stated choice data, we estimate a model that makes the trade-offs between leisure and income over the life cycle explicit, and use the estimated model for counterfactual policy simulations. We find that, as expected, higher (full) pension eligibility ages make actuarially fair (abrupt) early retirement more attractive and make late retirement less attractive, while about one in three respondents prefer partial retirement irrespective of the eligibility age. Early retirement becomes more attractive than late retirement when individuals do not have the partial retirement option. Moreover, the partial retirement decision is sensitive to financial incentives so that subsidizing partial retirement with higher wages or with more than actuarially fair pension increases for delaying retirement increases total labor supply. These findings demonstrate the potential of partial retirement as a policy instrument to stimulate labor participation, especially when pension eligibility is delayed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102739"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144523582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-22DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102741
Erika Forsberg , Akib Khan , Olof Rosenqvist
Family background shapes individual outcomes across the life cycle. While research documents how family background importance varies across countries, less is known about heterogeneities across socioeconomic groups within countries. Using comprehensive Swedish register data, we compare sibling correlations—a more holistic measure of family influence than direct parent–child associations—in skills, schooling, and earnings across fine-grained groups defined by parental socioeconomic status (SES). We find that sibling correlations generally decline with parental SES. This pattern holds across cognitive skills, schooling, and earnings, and is robust to alternative definitions of parental SES. The decline is particularly pronounced when comparing the lowest decile to higher SES groups. For education and earnings, the decline in sibling correlations at higher SES levels is primarily driven by increased within-family variation, suggesting siblings in advantaged families develop more individualized paths. For skills, the decline reflects decreasing between-family variation. This result is consistent with theories on reinforcing parental investments, though other mechanisms, including complementarities between investments and abilities, credit constraints faced by low-SES families and broader poverty traps, may also contribute. Our results suggest that children from low-SES backgrounds not only have worse average outcomes than those from high-SES homes but also face constraints on individual development. This study provides insights into how equality of opportunity varies across the socioeconomic spectrum, revealing nuances in family influence that country-level averages may obscure.
{"title":"Do sibling correlations in skills, schooling, and earnings vary by socioeconomic background? Insights from Sweden","authors":"Erika Forsberg , Akib Khan , Olof Rosenqvist","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102741","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102741","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Family background shapes individual outcomes across the life cycle. While research documents how family background importance varies across countries, less is known about heterogeneities across socioeconomic groups within countries. Using comprehensive Swedish register data, we compare sibling correlations—a more holistic measure of family influence than direct parent–child associations—in skills, schooling, and earnings across fine-grained groups defined by parental socioeconomic status (SES). We find that sibling correlations generally decline with parental SES. This pattern holds across cognitive skills, schooling, and earnings, and is robust to alternative definitions of parental SES. The decline is particularly pronounced when comparing the lowest decile to higher SES groups. For education and earnings, the decline in sibling correlations at higher SES levels is primarily driven by increased within-family variation, suggesting siblings in advantaged families develop more individualized paths. For skills, the decline reflects decreasing between-family variation. This result is consistent with theories on reinforcing parental investments, though other mechanisms, including complementarities between investments and abilities, credit constraints faced by low-SES families and broader poverty traps, may also contribute. Our results suggest that children from low-SES backgrounds not only have worse average outcomes than those from high-SES homes but also face constraints on individual development. This study provides insights into how equality of opportunity varies across the socioeconomic spectrum, revealing nuances in family influence that country-level averages may obscure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102741"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144514233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-21DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102745
Angus Holford , Sonkurt Sen
We study the impact of racial representation among academic staff on university students’ academic and labor market outcomes. We use administrative data on the universe of staff and students at all UK universities, linked to survey data on students’ post-graduation outcomes, exploiting idiosyncratic variation (conditional on a rich set of fixed effects and observable student, staff, and university-department level characteristics) in the proportion of racial minority academic staff to whom students are exposed. We find that minority and own-race representation benefits the academic outcomes of minority groups: When minority students are exposed to 1 standard deviation higher proportion of minority academics, they are 1.03ppt (2% of the mean) more likely to graduate with a first or upper second class honors degree and they are also 0.88ppt (1.5% of the mean) more likely to graduate on time. There is no beneficial impact of minority or own-race representation on the labor market outcomes of minorities. However, we do find that minority representation among academic staff significantly increases progression of minority students to graduate study, suggesting that there may be benefits of same-race representation operating through provision of role models or domain-specific advice and guidance.
{"title":"Racial representation among academics and students’ academic and labor market outcomes","authors":"Angus Holford , Sonkurt Sen","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102745","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102745","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study the impact of racial representation among academic staff on university students’ academic and labor market outcomes. We use administrative data on the universe of staff and students at all UK universities, linked to survey data on students’ post-graduation outcomes, exploiting idiosyncratic variation (conditional on a rich set of fixed effects and observable student, staff, and university-department level characteristics) in the proportion of racial minority academic staff to whom students are exposed. We find that minority and own-race representation benefits the academic outcomes of minority groups: When minority students are exposed to 1 standard deviation higher proportion of minority academics, they are 1.03ppt (2% of the mean) more likely to graduate with a first or upper second class honors degree and they are also 0.88ppt (1.5% of the mean) more likely to graduate on time. There is no beneficial impact of minority or own-race representation on the labor market outcomes of minorities. However, we do find that minority representation among academic staff significantly increases progression of minority students to graduate study, suggesting that there may be benefits of same-race representation operating through provision of role models or domain-specific advice and guidance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102745"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-12DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102748
Joe Dodd, Luke Munford, Matt Sutton, Igor Francetic
The association between common mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression, and labour outcomes has been extensively documented. However, the consequences of delaying access to therapies addressing these conditions is unknown. The NHS Talking Therapies programme was launched in England in 2008 and had expanded to reach 1.24 million users by 2021. We investigate the reduced-form impact of delayed access to this programme on the gap in probability of employment and taking time away from work attributable to poor mental health. We measure mental health and labour outcomes using 2015-2019 data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. As this does not record use of Talking Therapies, we use poor mental health to proxy capacity to benefit and identify the intent-to-treat effect. A one standard deviation (10.5 days) decrease in median area-level waiting time leads to a 1.5 percentage point decrease in the gap in probability of employment between individuals in good and poor mental health. Similarly, the gap in the probability of taking time away from work decreases by around 1 percentage point. Our findings are robust to alternative model specifications, sample definitions, treatment definitions, and dealing with potential selective attrition. Our reduced form estimates suggest that faster access to effective treatment can improve labour market outcomes and reduce the productivity losses associated with mental health problems.
{"title":"The effect of area-level waiting times for psychological therapies on individual-level labour market outcomes","authors":"Joe Dodd, Luke Munford, Matt Sutton, Igor Francetic","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102748","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102748","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The association between common mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression, and labour outcomes has been extensively documented. However, the consequences of delaying access to therapies addressing these conditions is unknown. The NHS Talking Therapies programme was launched in England in 2008 and had expanded to reach 1.24 million users by 2021. We investigate the reduced-form impact of delayed access to this programme on the gap in probability of employment and taking time away from work attributable to poor mental health. We measure mental health and labour outcomes using 2015-2019 data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. As this does not record use of Talking Therapies, we use poor mental health to proxy capacity to benefit and identify the intent-to-treat effect. A one standard deviation (10.5 days) decrease in median area-level waiting time leads to a 1.5 percentage point decrease in the gap in probability of employment between individuals in good and poor mental health. Similarly, the gap in the probability of taking time away from work decreases by around 1 percentage point. Our findings are robust to alternative model specifications, sample definitions, treatment definitions, and dealing with potential selective attrition. Our reduced form estimates suggest that faster access to effective treatment can improve labour market outcomes and reduce the productivity losses associated with mental health problems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102748"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144321576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-05DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102744
Dominique Goux , Eric Maurin
In 2016, a law authorized Sunday working in the retail sector in some thirty French areas. We show that the reform did not coincide with any significant increase in retail trade employment in target areas. However, the increase in the number of days shops are open has led employers to favor employees who are sufficiently experienced to manage a store independently. There has been a significant drop in the employment share of less experienced workers, as well as a sharp decline in the share of single parents, for whom it is difficult to reconcile family responsibilities and Sunday work.
{"title":"Who will work on Sunday? The winners and losers of Sunday laws relaxation","authors":"Dominique Goux , Eric Maurin","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102744","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102744","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In 2016, a law authorized Sunday working in the retail sector in some thirty French areas. We show that the reform did not coincide with any significant increase in retail trade employment in target areas. However, the increase in the number of days shops are open has led employers to favor employees who are sufficiently experienced to manage a store independently. There has been a significant drop in the employment share of less experienced workers, as well as a sharp decline in the share of single parents, for whom it is difficult to reconcile family responsibilities and Sunday work.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102744"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144271250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-04DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102719
Pierre Koning , Paul Muller , Roger Prudon
We show that workers with fixed-term contracts are substantially more likely to apply for and be awarded disability insurance (DI) benefits than permanent workers. We study whether this differential can be explained by (i) selection of worker types into contracts, (ii) the relation between contract type and the risk of illness, (iii) differences in employer support during illness, and (iv) differences in labour market prospects of ill workers. We find that selection actually masks part of the differential, whereas the impact of contract type on health is limited. In contrast, the difference in employer support during illness is a significant cause of the heightened DI risk of temporary workers, especially in slack labour markets. We therefore conclude that, conditional on being ill, workers with fixed-term contracts face different support structures and incentives that make them more likely to ultimately apply for and be awarded DI.
{"title":"Why does temporary work increase disability insurance inflow?","authors":"Pierre Koning , Paul Muller , Roger Prudon","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102719","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102719","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We show that workers with fixed-term contracts are substantially more likely to apply for and be awarded disability insurance (DI) benefits than permanent workers. We study whether this differential can be explained by (i) selection of worker types into contracts, (ii) the relation between contract type and the risk of illness, (iii) differences in employer support during illness, and (iv) differences in labour market prospects of ill workers. We find that selection actually masks part of the differential, whereas the impact of contract type on health is limited. In contrast, the difference in employer support during illness is a significant cause of the heightened DI risk of temporary workers, especially in slack labour markets. We therefore conclude that, conditional on being ill, workers with fixed-term contracts face different support structures and incentives that make them more likely to ultimately apply for and be awarded DI.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102719"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144241011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102732
Laura Kawano , Sara LaLumia , Shanthi Ramnath , Michael Stevens
We use a large panel of married households to update estimated added worker effects. In response to a primary earner’s job loss, secondary earners are 1.1 to 2.4 percentage points more likely to work and compensate for 3.6 to 5.1 percent of the displaced worker’s lost earnings. When a secondary earner is displaced, spousal employment is unchanged but there is a substantial earnings reduction. These small compensatory responses are explained by an increased probability that the nondisplaced spouse exits employment, either through correlated unemployment shocks or retirement. Conditional on relative-earner status, sex-based differences in added worker effects are small.
{"title":"Who picks up the slack? Understanding spousal responses to unemployment spells","authors":"Laura Kawano , Sara LaLumia , Shanthi Ramnath , Michael Stevens","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102732","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102732","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We use a large panel of married households to update estimated added worker effects. In response to a primary earner’s job loss, secondary earners are 1.1 to 2.4 percentage points more likely to work and compensate for 3.6 to 5.1 percent of the displaced worker’s lost earnings. When a secondary earner is displaced, spousal employment is unchanged but there is a substantial earnings <em>reduction</em>. These small compensatory responses are explained by an increased probability that the nondisplaced spouse exits employment, either through correlated unemployment shocks or retirement. Conditional on relative-earner status, sex-based differences in added worker effects are small.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102732"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144166430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-25DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102740
Katharina Heisig , Larissa Zierow
This study investigates the impact of an increase in paid parental leave from six to twelve months on children’s long-term outcomes. Our setting—former East Germany—is characterized by high maternal labor market participation and a universal supply of standardized childcare. It thus mitigates identification issues such as selection into the labor market and provides a clear counterfactual to maternal care. Applying a difference-in-differences design and using representative survey data, we exploit the specific timing of the parental leave reforms in 1976 and 1986. We find significant and robust positive effects on children’s life satisfaction in adulthood for both reforms. Effects on gross wages are positive but not robust across different specifications. A heterogeneity analysis by gender reveals positive effects on trust and health among males.
{"title":"Paid parental leave and long-term outcomes of children—Quasi-experimental evidence from former East Germany","authors":"Katharina Heisig , Larissa Zierow","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102740","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102740","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the impact of an increase in paid parental leave from six to twelve months on children’s long-term outcomes. Our setting—former East Germany—is characterized by high maternal labor market participation and a universal supply of standardized childcare. It thus mitigates identification issues such as selection into the labor market and provides a clear counterfactual to maternal care. Applying a difference-in-differences design and using representative survey data, we exploit the specific timing of the parental leave reforms in 1976 and 1986. We find significant and robust positive effects on children’s life satisfaction in adulthood for both reforms. Effects on gross wages are positive but not robust across different specifications. A heterogeneity analysis by gender reveals positive effects on trust and health among males.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"96 ","pages":"Article 102740"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144291536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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