Choi Youjin, Margolis Rachel, Holm Anders
Social Analysis and Modelling Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Sociology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Demography. 2025 Jun 1;62(3):879-898. doi: 10.1215/00703370-11958785.
Paid parental benefits, with individually earmarked time for mothers and fathers, aim to promote gender equality in labor force participation, wages, and childcare. The Canadian province of Québec expanded parental benefits over and above the federal policy in 2006 with the Québec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP), which introduced paid paternity leave and lower eligibility criteria as its key features. This policy aimed to increase gender equality by encouraging fathers to use parental benefits and expanding coverage to low-income parents. Using Canadian administrative data and exploiting the policy changes in 2006 as a natural experiment, we examine the effects of Québec's extended parental benefits policy on parents' employment and earnings over 10 years after the transition to parenthood. First, we find that fathers' use of parental benefits had positive long-run effects on mothers' and fathers' earnings 8-10 years after a first birth. Second, we find that among women with low earnings before the transition to parenthood, QPIP increased the likelihood of employment 1-7 years after a first birth. This article provides the first evidence that a policy dramatically expanding parental benefits and encouraging use among both parents can have long-term positive effects on parents' labor market outcomes.
带薪育儿福利，为母亲和父亲分别设定了专属时间，旨在促进劳动力参与、工资待遇和儿童照料方面的性别平等。加拿大魁北克省在2006年推出了魁北克省育儿保险计划（QPIP），在联邦政策基础上扩大了育儿福利，该计划引入了带薪陪产假和更低的资格标准作为其主要特点。这项政策旨在通过鼓励父亲使用育儿福利并将覆盖范围扩大到低收入父母来提高性别平等。利用加拿大行政数据并将2006年的政策变化作为一项自然实验，我们研究了魁北克省扩大后的育儿福利政策对父母在成为父母后的10年里的就业和收入的影响。首先，我们发现父亲使用育儿福利对首次生育后8至10年母亲和父亲的收入有长期的积极影响。其次，我们发现，在成为父母之前收入较低的女性中，魁北克省育儿保险计划增加了首次生育后1至7年的就业可能性。本文首次证明，一项大幅扩大育儿福利并鼓励父母双方使用的政策可以对父母的劳动力市场结果产生长期的积极影响。
