Maternal Employment in Scandinavia: A Comparison of the After-Birth Employment Activity of Norwegian and Swedish Women.

Abstract

A striking characteristic of recent Western labor market trends is the rise in employment among mothers of very young children. So far, few studies have analyzed the impact of public policies on employment rates of young mothers. In this study we address this issue by comparing two similar countries, Norway and Sweden, which have the same set of policies with slight variations, using data sets with similar designs. We analyze rates of reentry into paid work after first birth for mothers in 1968-88 by means of hazard regression. One important finding is that the right to paid maternity leave with job security greatly speeds up the return to work.