1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«In this paper, [the author provided] the first comprehensive causal analysis of the short-and medium-term consequences of a policy aiming to promote paternity leave. [She studies] the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP), a system of parental leave benefits introduced in Quebec in 2006 that sought to boost fathers’ participation in parental leave.» (p. 1011)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
L’auteure mobilise des données provenant de l’Enquête sur la couverture de l’assurance-emploi et de l’Enquête sociale générale.

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

Overall, this study confirms «that daddy quotas can influence behavior through their labeling effects rather than the binding restrictions on who can use the leave, providing evidence that when combined with generous compensation, daddy-only labels can produce a flypaper effect that makes leave stick to fathers. This study also offers the first comprehensive causal analysis of the effect of paternity leave on the household division of labor. It provides strong evidence that by altering the initial distribution of parenting responsibilities, paternity leave can influence decisions about how to allocate parents’ resources to childcare, domestic work, and paid work in later years. [These results] suggest that daddy quotas may help fathers overcome such barriers to taking leave as social stigma and perceived professional penalties. Policy makers hoping to improve fathers’ leave participation should therefore consider quotas as an effective and complementary policy option to improving financial compensation for leave. Second, these results suggest that it is possible for policies that induce changes in short-term behavior to have persistent effects on people’s behavior, that is, that a reform resulting in an increase in fathers’ leave duration of 3 weeks could be sufficient to stimulate a shift in household dynamics for years to come. Third and perhaps most importantly, these results suggest that there need not be a trade-off between gender equality and parental investments in children, such that paternity leave may present us with a rare win-win scenario.» (p. 1052-1053)