Impact of Parental Leave Reform on Fertility in Finland

Abstract

This study examined the impact of the parental leave reform of 2013 and aimed at the reform had a positive effect on the timing of having another child. Finnish register data was used to determine the impact of policy reform on fertility timing among the post-reform group. Discrete-time event history method was followed by natural experimental design in a quasi-experimental setting. The pre- and post-reform groups were divided based on the birth month of the reform child where birth is a random natural event and thus, follows natural experiment. In the group division, the researcher made the assignment criterion (quasi-experimental approach) to assign them to the control and treatment groups. The total sample size was 16764, including 8315 pre-reform births and 8449 post-reform births. Time was measured in months, and individuals were followed until 60 months to record subsequent childbirth. The result of the study found a significant increase in father’s total days of leave uptake in the post-reform group. However, the non-significant reform effect and no difference in birth timing in the treatment group were observed over the follow-up period. The key findings of the study could not meet the proposed hypothesis. This study measured an aspect of fertility and explored that the policy reform had no direct effect on the timing of childbirth, which will help the policymakers and researchers to understand the exception of the Finnish context.