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Intergenerational Spillovers of Paternity Leave

Project description

Paternity leave: the impact on future generations

Paternity leave reforms have increased fathers’ involvement in childcare, but it remains unclear whether this has long-term impact and influences future generations. The EU-funded Leave4NextGen project aims to investigate whether the implementation of paternity leave can foster non-traditional attitudes passed on from parents to their children. Moreover, the project will evaluate whether paternity leave affects the practical choices made by the next generation. By surveying young adults who have experienced paternity leave, researchers will gauge their views on gender roles. Register data will be used to determine whether paternity leave impacts human capital, labour force participation or decisions related to fertility. The study examines the effect of the Belgian paternity leave reform in 2002, comparing young adults born before and after the reform.

Objective

Recent evaluations show that paternity leave reforms have successfully increased fathers’ involvement in childcare and have contributed to a shift in gender norms. But whether this shift in gender norms can be passed on to the next generation and affect children’s real-life decisions remains to be seen. This study thus fills an important gap since preference formation and social norms have been found to be the main contributor to the persistence of gender inequality over time.

The objectives of this research project are twofold. First, it will determine whether the introduction of paternity leave can promote counter-stereotypical attitudes that are transmitted from parents to children. A survey of young adults exposed (or not) to a father eligible for paternity leave will be conducted to measure attitudes toward gender roles. Second, the study will evaluate whether paternity leave has spillover effects on the next generation’s real-life decisions. As such, it will use register data to observe whether young adults’ human capital, labour supply, or fertility decisions are affected by their father’s use of paternity leave.

To evaluate the intergenerational spillover effects of paternity leave, this research proposes to analyse the 2002 Belgian paternity leave reform, which offers an appealing setup. Indeed, Belgium was an early adopter of paternity leave policies, introducing a two-week leave in 2002. The children of Belgian fathers have therefore entered adulthood and will be 22 years old in 2024. To measure the causal effects of the paternity leave reform across generations, the study will use a natural experiment that relies on the fact that when paternity leave was introduced in Belgium in 2002, only fathers of children born after July 1 were eligible to take the paid leave. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design, this research will therefore compare young adults born before and after the reform cutoff.

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Topic(s)

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 165 312,96
Address
PLACA DE LA MERCE, 10-12
08002 Barcelona
Spain

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Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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