Olivier Thévenon

Do ‘institutional complementarities’ foster female labour force participation?

We analyse how female labour force participation responds to policies supporting the work-life balance, and do so using country-level data for 18 OECD countries from 1980 to 2007. Included is an original analysis of ‘complementarities’ between different policy measures, as well as of potential variations in their influence across different family policy regimes. The results highlight that expanded childcare service coverage affects womens labour market participation, which is greater in countries where support for working mothers is higher overall. But the influence of each single policy measure varies across regimes. Interactions between policy measures and the context in which they are implemented are important factors to consider since they can, for instance, either foster the positive impact of one measure or lessen the adverse effect of another.

The Influence of Family Policies on Fertility in France: Lessons from the Past and Prospects for the Future

France stands out from most other European countries because of its high and relatively stable fertility rate among the cohorts born since the 1950s. France’s broad, long-standing, and consistent family policies contribute to this stability, although the exact contribution is hard to quantify. This chapter presents the main fertility trends in France and the characteristics of French family policies that may influence fertility. It emphasizes the broad spectrum of policy measures that cover a wide range of families, regardless of their civil status, number of children, or the working status of parents. These policies offer continuous support to children throughout childhood. One strength of family policies in France has been their effective adaptation to the increasing diversity of family forms. Population aging, however, requires further adaptations that are also discussed in the chapter.

Institutional Settings of Childbearing

This chapter examines the macro-level within which reproductive decisions are made in OECD countries. It establishes different institutional settings by looking at three core components or levers of family policies which can have an important effect on childbearing preferences: financial transfers to supplement family income, leave entitlements to enable working parents to care for their child(ren) and the provision of child-care services. It assesses differences in their key characteristics as well as the extent to which a combination of these forms of support may influence fertility behaviour. Three main issues are considered. To examine how policy support for families has evolved over recent decades, key characteristics of support at different points in time are compared. Differences in policy support for specific types of families (one-earner or two-earner couples, different numbers of children) are compared. Finally, the combination of resources in terms of time, money and services available to parents over the life course of a child is used to consider whether policy packages are sufficient to secure the environment needed to start family formation or to enlarge the family. The main source of data is the OECD Family Database. The results indicate that complementary combinations of support in time, cash and services to foster work-life balance and continuity of this support over childhood are key parameters for policy effectiveness.