Publications

This page includes links to relevant publications in the field of leave policies.

 

Research Handbook on Leave Policy. Parenting and Social Inequalities in a Global Perspective (2022)

Edited by Ivana Dobrotić , Sonja Blum , and Alison Koslowski 

Elgar Handbooks in Social Policy and Welfare

This Research Handbook aims to deepen the understanding of complexities inherent to both leave policy research and leave policy development. It provides a comprehensive and contemporary overview of conceptual and methodological trends and challenges in leave policy research, state-of-the-art findings on leave policy determinants and outcomes, as well as up-to-date knowledge on leave policy developments in different regions around the world. The Research Handbook brings together scholars – many of them members of the International Network on Leave Policies and Research – from various disciplines and different countries and regions, allowing for a diversity of perspectives and voices. Chapters engage with both past and future leave policy developments across the globe and, most importantly, encourage a critical debate on how leave policies should respond to the challenges posed by permanent (politics of) austerity, the rise of right-wing populism, new economies marked by increasingly precarious, underinsured and nonstandard employment, informal economies, migration flows, the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing financial strains on parents and widening (global) inequalities in general.

 

Parental Leave and Beyond. Recent International Developments, Current Issues and Future Directions (2019)

Edited by Peter Moss and Ann-Zofie Duvancer

Bristol Policy Press

This volume provides an international perspective on parental leave policies in different countries, goes beyond this to examine a range of issues in depth, and aims to stimulate thinking about possible futures and how policy might underpin them.

doi.org/10.46692/9781447338796

 

Time for Care: A History of State Leave Legislation in the United States (2018)

Cassandra Engemann

Working Paper Series No 9/2018, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research

Download report (PDF): Time for Care

In comparison to most other countries, the United States offers little support to new parents and few protections to workers with caregiving responsibilities. At the subnational level, however, states have adopted their own family policies over the last several decades. This report shares historical data on the adoption of state legislation granting maternity, parental, family, and sick leave rights and provisions to private and public sector workers. It builds on previous reports of subnational family policy by providing the enactment, effective, and amendment dates of state legislation from 1942 to 2017. This new data will support research on the causes and consequences of subnational social policies and cross-state comparative research on poverty and inequality.

Doing Better for Families (2011)

OECD

Download report (PDF): Doing better for families

This book looks at the different ways in which governments support families. It seeks to provide answers to questions like: Is spending on family benefits going up, and how does it vary by the age of the child? Has the crisis affected public support for families? What is the best way of helping adults to have the number of children they desire? What are the effects of parental leave programmes on female labour supply and on child well-being? Are childcare costs a barrier to parental employment and can flexible workplace options help? What is the best time for mothers to go back to work after childbirth? And what are the best policies to reduce poverty among sole parents?

Family Policies in the OECD Countries: A Comparative Analysis (2011)

Olivier Thevenon, OECD

Further information: Wiley online library

Using comprehensive country-level data from the OECD Family database covering variables such as parental leave conditions, childcare service provision and financial support to families, this article discusses the diversity of family policy models in 28 OECD countries in terms of the balance between their different objectives and the mix of instruments adopted to implement the policies. 

Fathering in Australia among couple families with young children (2011)

Jennifer Baxter and Diana Smart, Australian Institute of Family Studies

Download report (PDF): Fathering in Australia  

This report aims to increase understanding of the many ways in which fathers in couple families with young children contribute to family life, through the study of their time investment with children, their supportiveness as partners, their financial contribution, their parenting behaviours and styles, and their perceptions of their own adequacy as fathers. The impact of fathers on children's wellbeing is also examined. The report uses data from Waves 1 to 3 of Growing Up in Australia: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), a large-scale, nationally representative study of children and families.

Family Policy in Council of Europe Member States (2009)

Karin Wall, et. al., Council of Europe

Download report (PDF): Family Policy in Council of Europe Member States

Contains two expert reports commissioned by the Committee of Experts on Social Policy for Families and Children; one provides a comparative analysis of family policies, including leave, the other reviews developments and dynamics in a number of member states.

Raising the Global Floor (2009)

McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy

Further information: raisingtheglobalfloor.org

Provides information for 190 countries on how governments meet the needs of working men, women, and their families, including provision of different types of leave.

The Politics of Parental Leave Policies (2009)

edited by Sheila B. Kamerman and Peter Moss

Further information: The policypress

Based on contributions from 16 countries and about the EU, this book examines how, why and by whom leave policies have been developed.