Does family leave have an effect on the career? : An empirical analysis of highly educated women's labour market outcomes
Sandbacka, Ronja (2022)
Sandbacka, Ronja
2022
Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022050332484
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022050332484
Tiivistelmä
Research shows that gendered inequalities in the labour market, such as wage differences and discrepancies in promotion probabilities, often correlate with parenthood. Women tend to have more responsibility of childcaring, which results in a smaller production input and smaller returns in the labour market.
The labour market effects of having children are constantly researched. However, researchers are still undetermined considering the mechanisms behind the labour market behaviours in relation to motherhood. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether family leave has an effect on the career decisions of highly educated Finnish females and whether the effect is caused by pre-birth selection, household specialisation or signaling. The analysis uses data from the Career and Employment Survey by the Aarresaari Network 2016–2019. The survey is answered by university graduates five years after their graduation date and gives insight into their education, labour market outcomes and family leave usage.
The research question ‘does family leave have an effect on the career?’ is answered with logistic regression analysis and matching analysis. The thesis finds that family leave has a small significant negative effect on the probability of women working full-time and having received any post-graduation education or training. This suggests post-birth selection and is consistent with previous research about changed labour market behaviour after childbirth. The analysis results also show that family leave indicates a reduced risk of unemployment, which might be caused by a lower reservation wage after childbirth. The thesis also finds support of pre-birth selection, since women with future family leave more often study in specific fields, especially educational sciences.
Overall, the career is negatively affected by family leave, but the matching analyses show that a shorter leave duration results in a fairly similar career as one for a woman without any family leave. This is especially apparent when investigating income – smaller income is only noticed among women on long family leave. A return to the work force from a short leave involves a small earnings reward to the worker. This finding agrees with previous research about family leave signaling.
The labour market effects of having children are constantly researched. However, researchers are still undetermined considering the mechanisms behind the labour market behaviours in relation to motherhood. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether family leave has an effect on the career decisions of highly educated Finnish females and whether the effect is caused by pre-birth selection, household specialisation or signaling. The analysis uses data from the Career and Employment Survey by the Aarresaari Network 2016–2019. The survey is answered by university graduates five years after their graduation date and gives insight into their education, labour market outcomes and family leave usage.
The research question ‘does family leave have an effect on the career?’ is answered with logistic regression analysis and matching analysis. The thesis finds that family leave has a small significant negative effect on the probability of women working full-time and having received any post-graduation education or training. This suggests post-birth selection and is consistent with previous research about changed labour market behaviour after childbirth. The analysis results also show that family leave indicates a reduced risk of unemployment, which might be caused by a lower reservation wage after childbirth. The thesis also finds support of pre-birth selection, since women with future family leave more often study in specific fields, especially educational sciences.
Overall, the career is negatively affected by family leave, but the matching analyses show that a shorter leave duration results in a fairly similar career as one for a woman without any family leave. This is especially apparent when investigating income – smaller income is only noticed among women on long family leave. A return to the work force from a short leave involves a small earnings reward to the worker. This finding agrees with previous research about family leave signaling.