Does providing nontransferable months of parental leave earmarked
for fathers, as mandated by the European Union to its member
countries since 2019, increase their participation? To answer that
question, the authors investigate the consequences of a 2015 French
reform that designated up to 12 months of paid leave for fathers
while simultaneously reducing the maximum paid leave for mothers
by the same number of months. Although the benefits were low,
parental leave could be taken on a part-time basis, which can be
more attractive to fathers. Using administrative data and comparing
parents of children born before and after the reform, the authors
find that in response to a 25 percentage point (pp) decline in mothers’ participation rate triggered by the reform, fathers’ partici-
pation increased by less than 1 pp, primarily through part-time leave. The reform increased mothers’ labor earnings, but it had no significant impact on fathers’ earnings. Overall, the substitut-ability of parental leave between parents appears to be low and, asa result, earmarking alone does not substantially increase fathers’
participation.