Gender norms influence which parent stays home with a sick child

Tax reforms reveal how families adjust temporary parental leave

Using Swedish tax reforms, the researchers study how couples adjust their use of temporary parental leave to care for sick children when parents’ relative economic incentives change. ”We study both native-born and immigrant couples from different cultural backgrounds,” says Peter Skogman Thoursie.

Skogman Thoursie explains that couples from cultures with more traditional gender roles tend to allocate more temporary parental leave to the mother when the father’s marginal tax rate is reduced and his work becomes more financially rewarding. ”However, we do not observe a corresponding shift toward the father when the mother’s marginal tax rate is reduced,” he says.

This pattern suggests that economic incentives interact with gender norms. In families with more traditional norms, the mother’s responsibility for childcare increases when the father’s relative earnings become more valuable, whereas a similar change for the mother does not lead to the same reallocation of caregiving responsibilities.