Work Disability after Motherhood and How Paternity Leave Can Help

Oct 3, 2026

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Study examines how childbirth affects young working mothers’ likelihood of claiming disability insurance and whether paternity leave can reduce that effect. Using Belgian data, event-study results show disability incidence rates by gender diverge after first-time childbirth. A regression discontinuity difference-in-differences design finds mothers whose partners qualify for a two-week paternity leave spend about 21% fewer days on disability over twelve years. Evidence also links paternity-leave uptake to birth-spacing decisions that can further reduce mothers’ disability entry risk.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages65

Reading Time2 h 44 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES IZA DP No. 13756 Work Disability after Motherhood and How Paternity Leave Can Help Sébastien Fontenay Ilan Tojerow SEPTEMBER 2020 DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES IZA DP No. 13756 Work Disability after Motherhood and How Paternity Leave Can Help Sébastien Fontenay Université Libre Bruxelles (DULBEA, CEB) Ilan Tojerow Université Libre Bruxelles (DULBEA, CEB) and IZA SEPTEMBER 2020 Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world’s largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. ISSN: 2365-9793 IZA – Institute of Labor Economics | Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 5–9 53113 Bonn, Germany | Phone: +49-228-3894-0
Email: [publications@iza.org](publications@iza.org) | [www.iza.org](www.iza.org) | | --- | --- | --- | IZA DP No. 13756 SEPTEMBER 2020 ABSTRACT Work Disability after Motherhood and How Paternity Leave Can Help* We study how childbirth increases the likelihood of young, working mothers to claim disability insurance and how paternity leave could ease this effect. Our event study analysis uses Belgian data to show that the incidence rate of disability across gender only diverges after first-time childbirth. This “other child penalty” can be reduced with the provision of paternity leave. Our regression discontinuity difference-in-differences design shows that mothers with partners eligible for a two-week-long paternity leave spent on average 21% fewer days on disability over twelve years. Moreover, we show links between this incidence of paternity leave and consequent birth-spacing decisions. JEL Classification: J16, J13, I13, H55 Keywords: disability insurance, gender, child penalty, paternity leave, maternal health, birth spacing, natural experiment, regression discontinuity, event study Corresponding author: Ilan Tojerow Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management Avenue F. D. Roosevelt, 50 1050 Brussels Belgium E-mail: [ilan.tojerow@ulb.ac.be](ilan.tojerow@ulb.ac.be) * This research project benefited from the financial support of the Thiepolam fund. We thank seminar participants at the Belgian Day for Labour Economists (Maastricht, 2019), IEB workshop Social Expenditure (Barcelona, 2019), ULB Centre Emile Bernheim (2019), DULBEA workshop on the Economics of Disability (2019), Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (2019), SOFI Workshop Gender Economics (Stockholm, 2019), Louisiana State University (2019), IWEPS (2019), Université catholique de Louvain (2019), University of Nevada at Reno (2019), IAE Workshop Health & Labour Market (Nantes, 2019), XXVII Meeting Public Economics (Barcelona, 2020), National Bank of Belgium (2020), University of Groningen (2020), Erasmus University Health Economics seminar (Rotterdam, 2020), EALE-SOLEAASLE World Conference (2020) for comments and suggestions. We also thank Thomas Barnay, Patrick Button, David De la Croix, Delia Furtado, Paula Gobbi, Camille Landais, Erica Lindahl, Olivier Marie, Noemi Peter, François Rycx, Ity Shurtz, Todd Sorensen, Ariane Szafarz, Judit Vall Castello and Philippe Van Kerm for valuable comments. 1 Introd

FAQs

How does childbirth affect disability insurance claims for mothers versus fathers?

The study finds that after first-time childbirth, mothers’ likelihood of claiming disability insurance rises relative to fathers, with divergence becoming observable after that event.

What is the estimated impact of paternity leave on mothers’ disability outcomes?

Using a regression discontinuity difference-in-differences design, the paper estimates that eligible paternity leave reduces mothers’ disability days by about 21% over twelve years.

Does paternity leave relate to decisions about birth spacing?

Yes. The research provides evidence that introducing paternity leave increases birth spacing, which in turn negatively impacts women’s likelihood of entering disability after childbirth.

Oct 3, 2026

Upload by Ophelia