Do Generous Parental Leave Policies Help Top Female Earners?
Generous government-mandated parental leave is generally viewed as an effective policy to support women’s careers around childbirth. But does it help women to reach top positions in the upper pay echelon of their firms?
In a new research article, Professor Astrid Kunze at the Department of Economics and her coauthors, studies the government-mandated parental leave in Norway. Using longitudinal employer-employee matched data for the entire Norwegian population, the researchers address this question exploiting a series of reforms that expanded paid leave from 30 weeks in 1989 to 52 weeks in 1993.
Is this an effective policy to support women’s careers around childbirth?
In this study, which focuses on Norway, Kunze et al. first highlight the extent of women’s representation in top positions and then ask whether more generous leave mandates, in terms of length of leave and wage replacement, have helped women to reach or maintain top earnings positions.