Publikasjoner / Papers / 2004 / 2004:028 The family gap and 'family friendly' policies
The family gap and 'family friendly' policies
Norway has among the most generous family policies in the world. In recent years already generous parental leave rights of one year with 80 per cent wage compensation were supplemented with child-rearing benefits for two additional years. We answer two main questions in this paper: i) What is the level of the family gap in such a generous regime, and ii) how has it developed as a consequence of the latest reform? Results suggest that the level of the family gap is rather modest in Norway compared to many other countries and we find no evidence of a worsening of the family gap in recent years. Results are stable to sector specific, level of education, field of education and two digit industry variations, and they apply also after control for selection on both observables and unobservables.