Studies on the Swedish Parental Insurance

Abstract: This thesis contains an introductory chapter and three essays, all considering different aspects of the Swedish parental insurance. In the first two essays, different aspects of temporary parental leave (leave from work to take care of a sick child) are investigated, whereas the third essay considers parental leave (leave from work to take care of a new-born child). In the first essay, On the Sharing of Temporary Parental Leave, we study what determines the intra household sharing of temporary parental leave. We find that the sharing of temporary parental leave can be explained by a Stackelberg model with male dominance, indicating that the man first gets to choose his contribution to temporary parental leave. However, we also find that bargaining power influences sharing, and that the stronger the bargaining power, the smaller the individual's share of temporary parental leave. Thus, the inequality regarding the sharing of temporary parental leave works through two channels: firstly, due to men's positions as Stackelberg leaders and secondly, through men, in general, having stronger bargaining power than women. In the second essay, A Comparison of Single and Cohabiting Mothers? Utilization of Temporary Parental Leave, we investigate what influences the utilization of temporary parental leave by single and cohabiting women. We find that single women take more temporary parental leave than cohabiting women, ceteris paribus. We also find that single women with higher educations and incomes take less temporary parental leave than single women with lower educations and incomes, indicating that taking temporary parental leave induces signaling costs, and that single women respond to such costs by taking less temporary parental leave. In the third essay, Satisfaction and ?Comparison Sharing? ? What influences parents? satisfaction with the sharing of parental leave?, we study what induces parents to, ex post, be satisfied with the intra household sharing of parental leave. In particular, we investigate if the probability of satisfaction is influenced by how other similar couples shared parental leave, i.e. if ?comparison sharing? influences satisfaction. We find that parents are more likely to be satisfied with the sharing of parental leave if they shared more equally than similar couples. Thus, we conclude that parents? preferences are interdependent in this respect. In addition, the labor market situation of the parents and/or their financial situation largely influence the sharing of parental leave, and when it does, parents are significantly less likely to be satisfied with sharing.