Abstract:
In this study, we investigate firm-side responses to absence from work, particularly due to parental leave. The primary focus is on firms’ adjustments in the gender and age composition of their workforce. For identification, we use employer-employee matched data and an instrument exploiting variation in exposure and intensity across firms due to a series of quasi-experimental expansionary reforms of the duration of paid parental leave in Norway. A main result is that in response to longer parental leave-related absences, firms have increased demand for young female employees. In further analyses we investigate effects on income, as well as heterogeneity across firms and effects on firm performance. As one mechanism that explains our findings, we discuss part-time work. The preliminary finding is that firms, small and large, appear to have strategically adapted to young women’s work interruptions linked to longer parental leave that has so far been an overlooked outcome in labour markets.
The seminar will be held in room 1249 (12th floor) at Eilert Sundts Hus. The address is Moltke Moes vei 31.