Submitted Abstract
Leave policies are among the most popular work-life reconciliation policies. State introduced leave policies often shape the parental leave take-up behaviours of parents as well as companies. While the legislation and fathers’ parental leave take-up behaviours vary across countries, existing evidence suggests some commonalities depending on the level of education, attributes of the family along with the statutory policies and company characteristics. Companies are often the main drivers of the implementation of statutory leave policies, and company characteristics and managerial attitudes may reflect on their employees’ leave take-ups. This PhD study’s main contribution and originality lay in the fact that it aims to analyse the intersection of company characteristics and employers’ take on parental leave policies with a focus on leave take-up behaviours of parents, particularly fathers. By focusing at the intersection at of organizational and policy effects’ of parents leave take-up, and selecting Luxembourg as case country and research sector as an area of focus, this study will bring about new evidence to an understudied area. This study aims to provide a solid understanding of the impact of Luxembourg’s 2016 leave policy reform on fathers’ leave take-up behaviours and also the intensity of labour market participation of fathers. It also intends to analyse the heterogeneity of the effect of the leave reform across different workplace characteristics. Moreover, by focusing on the research sector, an emerging industry in Luxembourg, this PhD project will provide a comprehensive analysis of the interaction mechanisms between organisational characteristics, leave-taking behaviour and gender equality in the labour market outcomes. By developing a new survey and also employing qualitative methods, this project’s mixed-method approach will provide a profound understanding of company and individual level determinants of parents’ leave-taking behaviours in the research sector of Luxembourg.