Balancing family and work: The effect of cash benefits for working mothers

B-Tier
Journal: Labour Economics
Year: 2008
Volume: 15
Issue: 6
Pages: 1127-1142

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to measure the potential effect of a family policy introduced in Spain in 2003 that provides working mothers with a monthly cash benefit of 100 euros per child aged under 3 years. We explore the effect of the policy on eligible women's labour market participation. In the tradition of the policy evaluation literature we use a difference-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) estimation approach. Our results support a small but significant positive effect of the policy. We find that since the implementation of the policy the labour market participation rate for mothers of children aged under 3 has risen by 3 percentage points compared to the rate for non-policy-eligible females. This represents 5% of their average labour market participation in 2002, the year before the policy was implemented. This overall policy effect is dominated by the effect of the policy among high school educated females.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:labeco:v:15:y:2008:i:6:p:1127-1142
Journal Field
Labor
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29