Finns in Sweden: What influence fathers’ parental leave use?

Eleonora Mussino, Jussi Tervola and

Ann-Zofie Duvander

Motivation of the study:

Why Finns in Sweden?

Why Parental Leave?

RQs and HPs

Data and Method

Results

Conclusions

Outline

Why Finns in Sweden?

Emigration from Finland has played a central role in the development of the Swedish economy ever since the 1950s

The geographical closeness and similarities in working life, institutions, and culture promoted migration flows (Korkiasaari and Söderling, 1998; Finnäs, 2003; Hedberg and Kepsu, 2003).

Finland and Sweden are countries where the norm of gender equality prevails in both public and private sphere.

Why Finns in Sweden?

More than half a million Finns moved to Sweden over a 50-year period, which amounts to one-tenth of the current Finnish population.

However, more than half returned to Finland after a few years stay in Sweden.

They represent 10% of the foreign born population in Sweden in 2014

Why Finns in Sweden?

Scb 2016

Why Finns in Sweden?

Additionally Finland and Sweden :

Provide family benefits for fathers but with crucial policy differences

Availability of in-depth register data

possibility to distinguish policy consequences from other factors, e.g. spouse’s origin, employment, wages, time in country

Nordic countries encourage fathers to participate in childcare through parental benefits

Mothers’ employment, equality, new fatherhood

Parental leave is used as indicator of gender equality

In Sweden almost 9 out of 10 fathers use parental leave. Major differences in leave length between fathers

In Finland, fathers’ use of parental leave is significantly lower than in Sweden (20% ).

Why Parental Leave?

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Why Parental Leave?

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Finnish system

Minimum benefit / homecare allowance

Father quota

Condition to fatherquota

Shared

Daddy days simult. withmother

Mother quota

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Swedish system

A previous study indicates that immigrant fathers are overrepresented among non-users of parental leave. However, differences diminish with time spent in the

host country

Immigrant fathers may be discouraged to use the leave for several reasons: Insecure attachment to the labour market

Lack of awareness about the social security system

Different gender roles in the culture of origin

Why Parental Leave?

So considering that: Finns in Sweden are economically integrated (LM migrants),

often speak the language and share gender equal norm.

And despite: The Finns in Finland use less PL than Swedes in Sweden

Our research questions are: Do Finnish immigrants use parental leave in Sweden?

Are there differences between immigrants and their native counterpart in Sweden and in Finland?

Do immigrants show sign of adaptation, selection or socialization?

RQs HPs

Longitudinal microdata, births 1999-2009

Finland: 60 % sample of mothers given births

Sweden: Total population

We study fathers:

1) Finnish-born in Sweden

2) natives in Finland,

3) natives in Sweden,

4) Swedish-born in Finland

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Data and Method

Examining the take-up (0/1) of individual leave (quota or gender-neutral leave)

Linear probability models (LMP)

Hypotheses on:

Labour market attachment

Characteristics of the spouse

Period effect

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Data and Method

Results

Controlled Model: Month of birth, year of birth LM attachment, share of father’s income, Spouse background, LM attachment spouse, Age of the father

Relative risk (ref Swedish born) of father using the leave in Sweden based on LPM coefficients

Results

Controlled Model: Month of birth, year of birth LM attachment, share of father’s income, Spouse background, LM attachment spouse, Age of the father

Relative risk (ref Swedish born) of father using the leave in Sweden based on LPM coefficients

Results

Year of birth (ref. 2009)

1999 0.0297 0.405 -0.0680 0.000 -0.2483 0.000 -0.2190 0.000

2000 -0.0021 0.955 -0.0603 0.000 -0.2503 0.000 -0.2348 0.000

2001 0.0350 0.346 -0.0500 0.000 -0.2513 0.000 -0.2185 0.000

2002 0.0543 0.134 -0.0146 0.000 -0.2264 0.000 -0.1918 0.000

2003 0.0612 0.102 -0.0104 0.000 -0.1743 0.000 -0.1779 0.000

2004 0.0696 0.067 -0.0077 0.003 -0.1679 0.000 -0.1717 0.000

2005 0.0857 0.026 0.0052 0.042 -0.1609 0.000 -0.1068 0.001

2006 0.0290 0.445 0.0082 0.001 -0.1365 0.000 -0.1281 0.000

2007 0.0075 0.854 0.0025 0.332 -0.0607 0.000 -0.0311 0.345

2008 0.0491 0.219 -0.0027 0.295 -0.0299 0.000 -0.0090 0.785

Finn Swe Fin Swe

Sweden Finland

Period Effect:

NO PERIOD EFFECT

Increase of use over

time

Same pattern: Increase of use over time

Controlled Model: Month of birth, year of birth LM attachment, share of father’s income, Spouse background, LM attachment spouse, Age of the father

Results

Labour Market Effect:

Controlled Model: Month of birth, year of birth LM attachment, share of father’s income, Spouse background, LM attachment spouse, Age of the father

Father's wage level (ref. medium)

Employed / low wage -0.2846 0.000 -0.2284 0.000 -0.0480 0.000 -0.0334 0.082

Employed / high wage -0.0944 0.000 -0.0616 0.000 0.0622 0.000 0.0897 0.000

Self-employed -0.0306 0.122 -0.0225 0.000 -0.0704 0.000 -0.0841 0.024

Not employed -0.1742 0.000 -0.1883 0.000 -0.0779 0.000 -0.0643 0.043

Father's income share (ref. ~50%)

0 (0-12%) -0.1103 0.019 -0.2202 0.000 -0.0129 0.043 0.0626 0.168

25 (13-37%) -0.0886 0.006 -0.0546 0.000 -0.0023 0.502 0.0103 0.707

75 (63-87%) -0.0865 0.000 -0.0488 0.000 -0.0390 0.000 -0.0196 0.272

100 (88-100%) -0.1473 0.000 -0.0766 0.000 -0.0335 0.000 -0.0073 0.833

Finn Swe Fin Swe

Sweden Finland

SAME effect: Medium wage

SAME effect: High wage

WEAK EFFECT 50% higher probability

WEAK EFFECT 50% higher probability

WEAK EFFECT

NO EFFECT

Results

Spouse Effect:

Controlled Model: Month of birth, year of birth LM attachment, share of father’s income, Spouse background, LM attachment spouse, Age of the father

Employed mother 0.0009 0.975 0.0056 0.014 -0.0032 0.334 0.0274 0.263

Immigrant mother (Ref Swedish)

Immigrant -0.0045 0.868 -0.0353 0.000 -0.0161 0.006 0.0067 0.883

Finnish/Swedish -0.0398 0.068 0.0010 0.881 -0.0089 0.216 0.0655 0.080

Father's income share (ref. ~50%)

0 (0-12%) -0.1103 0.019 -0.2202 0.000 -0.0129 0.043 0.0626 0.168

25 (13-37%) -0.0886 0.006 -0.0546 0.000 -0.0023 0.502 0.0103 0.707

75 (63-87%) -0.0865 0.000 -0.0488 0.000 -0.0390 0.000 -0.0196 0.272

100 (88-100%) -0.1473 0.000 -0.0766 0.000 -0.0335 0.000 -0.0073 0.833

Finn Swe Fin Swe

Sweden Finland

POSITIVE NO EFFECT NO EFFECT NO EFFECT

NO EFFECT NO EFFECT NO EFFECT

NO EFFECT POSITIVE

NEGATIVE NEGATIVE

NEGATIVE

Labour market attachment shapes parental leave use and is strongly connected to policy

Finnish immigrants in Sweden are influenced by a Finnish-born spouse

Swedish immigrants in Finland follow the national trend over time

Swedish natives are more likely to share parental leave

Conclusions

Do Finnish immigrants use parental leave in Sweden? Less than we expected There are some sign of adaptation over time Strong role of individual characteristics

Are there differences between immigrants and their native counterpart in Sweden and in Finland? They actually behave similar, Finns even more

Do immigrants show sign of adaptation, selection or socialization? Socialization: Being in a homogeneous relationship and

migrating at older ages have impact Adaptation: weak effect of duration of stay but clearly LM

shapes behaviors Selection: No sign…we have to look more

Conclusions

Consortium partners of TITA project