Indirect effects of “Daddy month” reforms on coworkers’ parental leave uptake

The purpose of this study is to investigate if fathers’ uptake of paid parental leave is affected by the presence of a coworker covered by Sweden’s “daddy month” reforms. The study examines both the timing of leave – relative to the child’s age – and the duration of leave taken, with a particular interest in indirect reform effects i.e., if the reforms affected the norms and expectations of other fathers at the workplace.

Since 1995, Sweden has introduced and expanded the number of paid parental leave days reserved to each parent. Previous research shows that the reforms increased fathers’ uptake of parental leave, but it remains unclear to what extent these fathers, in turn, affected their coworkers’ leave duration. This represents an important knowledge gap, particularly in a context where most fathers already take some parental leave.

The study is based on administrative data from Statistics Sweden and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. A fuzzy regression discontinuity-design is employed to compare fathers based on whether their coworker had a child shortly before or after the reforms were implemented.

Evidence of indirect effects would suggest that the reforms had a greater impact than previously assessed, and provide valuable insights for future family policy design.