Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Zhelyazkova, N.
Author-Email: zhelyazkova@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT
Title: Parental leave take up and return to work of mothers in Luxembourg: An
	 application of the model of nested dichotomies
Abstract: This paper analyses the use of parental leave after birth of a child for 
	 working mothers. Even though employment rates of women in industrialized 
	 countries are rising, women continue to assume the primary responsibility
	 for caring for young children after they are born. 
	 Therefore it is interesting and important to understand what factors 
	 account for womens decision to use or not use parental leave. The 
	 behaviour of mothers is conceptualized as a series of three decisions 
	 taking place after the compulsory period of maternity leave. The first 
	 decision is to retain a relationship with the pre-birth employment or to 
	 leave the labour force. Women who do not quit their employment, make a 
	 second choice to return to work immediately or to take parental leave 
	 for a fixed period of time, which guarantees them the right to return to 
	 work. Finally at the end of parental leave, women decide whether to 
	 return to work or to quit their job. The empirical analysis is performed 
	 on administrative data provided by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. In 
	 order to account for the sequential nature of the decisions, the model 
	 for nested dichotomies Fox, 1997 has been used. The result lend 
	 partial evidence to economic reasoning about womens decision making. 
	 Salary-related opportunity cost seems to be particularly important in 
	 the first and third decision, but not in the second. There are also 
	 interesting differences based on the nationality of the women.
Classification-JEL: J13, J16, J22
Keywords: work-family reconciliation, parental leave, labour supply, women,
	 gender economics, Luxembourg
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20140331
Number: 2014-023
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2014/wp2014-023.pdf 
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 754 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2014023