Marie Valentova of the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research examined the impact of the paid leave system on mothers of one and two children who had been working at least 20 hours a week before childbirth.

The research revealed that the policy increased “labour market engagement”, and had a bigger impact on women who had worked part-time before having their baby.

According to an abstract published on Liser’s website on 12 October:

“Labour-market engagement is measured by the number of hours worked monthly, 1, 2 and 3 years following the birth of the last child.”

Valentova examined social security data between 1995 and 2002, and the paper concluded:

“[A]mong mothers with one child, the introduction of the policy had a significant and positive impact on the working hours during the first 3 years after childbirth. Among mothers with two children, the impact of the policy was significant for 1 year after childbirth. Heterogeneity effect analysis shows that single-child mothers who worked part-time before childbirth were substantially more responsive to the policy than their full-time working counterparts.”

The parental leave scheme was first introduced in 1999 and revised in 2016.

The paper was first published in the Journal of European Social Policy on 11 July 2018.