The Baby Year Parental Leave Reform in the GDR and its Impact on Children's Long-Term Life Satisfaction

Culture, children and couple gender inequality

“…15 Other papers have, e.g., looked at differences in precautionary savings behaviour (Fuchs-Schündeln and Schündeln, 2005), preferences for redistribution (Alesina and Fuchs-Schündeln, 2007), or attitudes towards financial markets and investment behaviour (Laudenbach et al, 2020). 16 In 1976 a baby year was introduced for higher order births in the GDR and this was extended to all births in 1986 (Heisig and Zierow, 2019). During the baby year mothers received generous wage replacement, but commonly returned to employment thereafter.…”

The Long-Term Impact of Paid Parental Leave on Maternal Health and Subjective Well-Being

“…5 Long-term studies are desirable because subjective well-being is increasingly seen as essential for measuring living conditions in a welfare state (Kahneman and Krueger 2006;Clark et al 2008;Diener 2009;Deaton and Stone 2013;Benjamin et al 2019;Frijters et al 2020). Previous studies hint that parental leave might have long-term effects on affected children's subjective well-being (Heisig and Zierow 2019;Houmark et al 2022). Also, paternal leave might have long-term effects on fathers' and mothers' subjective well-being (Korsgren and van Lent 2022).…”