Nordic Family Policy and Demographic Consequences Presentation at 11 th LPR Network seminar, Tallinn th of September 2014 Ann-Zofie Duvander

What are the outcomes of family policy in Nordic countries? High female labour force participation and/or gender segregated labour market? High male participation in childcare and gender equality? High fertility and/or late childbearing? High family dissolution? High reconstitution of family and/or lone parenting? Low poverty among children?

Social Policy and Family Dynamics in Europe (SPaDE) Demography unit Department of Sociology, Stockholm University

Nordic Family Policy and demographic Consequences (NORDiC) Trude Lappegard, Statistics Norway (PI) (217915/F10) Research Council of Norway ( Aim: ”Whether and how Nordic family policy influences demographic behaviour and life-course earnings”

Nordic Family Policy and Union Dissolution Trude Lappegard, Statistics Norway Ann-Zofie Duvander, Stockholm University Synøve N. Andersen, Statistics Norway Ólöf Garðarsdóttir, University of Iceland Gerda Neyer, Stockholm University Ida Viklund, Stockholm University (presented at PAA 2014 in Boston, EPC 2014 in Budapest)

Research question Is fathers’ parental leave use associated with union dissolution? Does the association change over time? Are there differences between Nordic countries ?

Focus Three Nordic countries –Iceland, Norway and Sweden –Gender equality is an explicit policy goal –A long tradition of promoting gender equality through family policy The parental leave program –Facilitates the combination of childrearing and female employment –Encourages men’s participation in the domestic sphere and thus carries the potential to change gender relations within families

Expected effects and mechanisms Father’s investment in the relationship and the family Achieve more equality in total time spent in paid and unpaid work Facilitate mother’s situation Competing roles of father and mother at home? Difficult to be forerunner?

9 9 Parental Leave Programs in the Nordic countries Iceland Norway Sweden One year

Data Administrative register data, Iceland, Norway and Sweden Time period 1993 to 2011 (2012 for Sweden) Sample –Couples having their first common child –Exclude: Couples where the child dies Either parent dies or emigrates Children born abroad Multiple births

Methods Discrete time hazard model Start to measure dissolution risk when child is months Take into consideration that only dissolution date by year, including many sensitivity tests Follow couples for max 12 years Main explanatory variable: The father’s parental leave use

Parental leave use variable “Regulation variable” –No leave; –Up to quota; –More than quota

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Results (still preliminary!) 1.Risk of union separation for couples with at least one child 2.Risk of union separation during different periods.

15 Risk of union separation for couples with at least one child. Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Odds ratios. IcelandNorwaySweden Father’s leave No use111 Up to quota0,840,73***0,87*** More than quota0,72**0,83***0,93*** Number of obs Controlled for mother’s /father’s age, education, immigrant background, union status, number of children

Risk of union separation for couples with at least one child. Sweden and Norway. Computed odds ratios, father’s use of parental leave and period.

Discussion Fathers’ use of parental leave is positively associated with union stability in the Nordic countries –The relationship is not uniform –Cannot conclude that more leave reduces union separation –Indicates a complex relationship between gender roles and dissolution risk that needs more analyses!

Risk of union separation for couples with at least one child. Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Odds ratios.

19 Kaplan-Meier survival estimates of union separation by use of parental leave. Iceland, Norway and Sweden