Caring Dads? Universal Childcare, Paternity Leave and Fathers' Involvement

Mathias Huebener , Federal Institute for Population Research
Malin Mahlbacher, Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)
Sophia Schmitz, Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)

Increasing fathers' involvement in childcare is seen as an important strategy to reduce women's child penalties in the labour market and address declining fertility rates in high-income countries. However, very little is known about the extent to which family policies can incentivise parents to share the burden of child rearing more equally. This paper examines the impact of universal, highly subsidised childcare provision –- one of the most important measures to support mothers in the labour market -- on fathers' involvement across different stages of childhood. For the identification of causal effects, we exploit a major German reform generating large temporal and spatial variation in childcare coverage for children under the age of three, within a policy environment where fathers’ early engagement is incentivised through generous paternal leave provisions. Our generalised difference-in-differences estimations show that expanding universal childcare significantly accelerates children’s entry into childcare and increases fathers' likelihood of taking paternity leave, in response to mothers’ shorter leave durations and earlier reentry into the labour market. Fathers’ subsequent caregiving roles remain largely unaffected by the expansion of childcare, whereas women exhibit pronounced labour supply responses at both the intensive and extensive margins, alongside modest reductions in fathers’ full-time employment. Overall, increased childcare availability seems to promote a more equal division of parental leave and labour supply; yet the significant policy effort could not substantially alter father's caregiving responsibilities within the family.

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 Presented in Session P2. Families, Fertility, and the Life Course 2