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How Does Daddy at Home Affect Marital Stability?

Author

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  • Arna Olafsson
  • Herdis Steingrimsdottir
Abstract
We investigate whether paying fathers to stay at home with their newborn child affects marital stability. Our empirical analysis is based on a reform in Iceland that offered one month of parental leave earmarked to fathers with a child born on or after January 2001. This reform created substantial economic incentives for fathers to be more involved in caring for their children during their first months of life, and the take-up rate in the first year was 82.4%. We apply a regression discontinuity framework to assess the effect of this reform on the probability of separation among couples and find that parents who are entitled to paternity leave are less likely to separate. The effect persists throughout the first 15 years after the child is born. Interestingly, paternity leave has the strongest impact among couples where the mother has higher, or equal, educational attainment to that of the father.

Suggested Citation

  • Arna Olafsson & Herdis Steingrimsdottir, 2020. "How Does Daddy at Home Affect Marital Stability?," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(629), pages 1471-1500.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:130:y:2020:i:629:p:1471-1500.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueaa009
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Raute, Anna & Weber, Andrea & Zudenkova, Galina, 2022. "Can public policy increase paternity acknowledgement? Evidence from earnings-related parental leave," CEPR Discussion Papers 17073, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Daniel Avdic & Arizo Karimi, 2018. "Modern Family? Paternity Leave and Marital Stability," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 283-307, October.
    3. Lindahl, Erica & Rosenqvist, Olof & Selin, Håkan, 2023. "Gender-targeted transfers by default? - Evidence from a child allowance reform in Sweden," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Rosenqvist, Olof, 2022. "Reducing the gender gap in parental leave through economic incentives? – Evidence from the gender equality bonus in Sweden," Working Paper Series 2022:22, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    5. Regmi, Krishna & Wang, Le, 2022. "Maternity Leave," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1184, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Thomas Høgholm Jørgensen & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2021. "Welfare Reforms and the Division of Parental Leave," CEBI working paper series 21-09, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    7. Elizabeth Brainerd & Olga Malkova, 2023. "Maternity benefits and marital stability after birth: evidence from the Soviet Baltic republics," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 2309-2345, October.
    8. Rosenqvist, Olof, 2024. "Reducing the gender gap in parental leave through economic incentives? – Evidence from the gender equality bonus in Sweden," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    9. Libertad González & Hosny Zoabi, 2021. "Does Paternity Leave Promote Gender Equality within Households?," CESifo Working Paper Series 9430, CESifo.
    10. Sébastien Fontenay & Ilan Tojerow, 2020. "Work Disability after Motherhood and how Paternity Leave can Help," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/340869, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    11. Ganslmeier, Michael, 2023. "Are Campaign Promises Effective?," EconStor Preprints 274069, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    12. Krishna Regmi & Le Wang, 2025. "Baby steps to success? The impact of paid maternity leave on children’s long-term outcomes in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(2), pages 1-34, June.
    13. Ziegler, Lennart & Bamieh, Omar, 2023. "What Drives Paternity Leave: Financial Incentives or Flexibility?," IZA Discussion Papers 15890, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Høgholm Jørgensen, Thomas & Egholt Søgaard, Jakob, 2024. "The division of parental leave: Empirical evidence and policy design," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    15. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Kuehnle, Daniel & Riphahn, Regina T., 2018. "Paid parental leave and families’ living arrangements," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 182-197.
    16. Korsgren, Pontus & van Lent, Max, 2022. "Earmarked Paternity Leave and Well-Being," IZA Discussion Papers 15022, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Farré, Lídia, 2016. "Parental Leave Policies and Gender Equality: A Survey of the Literature/Permisos de Paternidad e igualdad de género: Una revisión de la literatura," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 34, pages 45-60, Enero.
    18. Sevrin Waights, 2022. "Parental Leave Benefits and Child Penalties," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2016, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Sara Mikkelsen & Noemi Peter, 2024. "More dads at home, more girls in maths‐intensive studies? Evidence from a parental leave reform," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 91(364), pages 1201-1221, October.
    20. Gordon Dahl & Katrine Loken, 2024. "Families, Public Policies, and the Labor Market," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2423, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin).
    21. Chuard, Caroline, 2023. "Negative effects of long parental leave on maternal health: Evidence from a substantial policy change in Austria," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    22. Dahl, Gordon & Loken, Katrine V., 2024. "Families, public policies, and the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics,, Elsevier.

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