In this paper, we account for the direct and indirect effects of maternity leave entitlements on female labor force participation. We first explore theoretically the impact of maternity leave duration on female labor supply in the presence of fertility decisions. We assume that maternity leave duration affects female labor supply through two main channels: reducing the time cost of female market work, and reducing women’s earnings. Our theoretical model allows for non-monotonic effects of leave duration on female labor supply. We test the predictions of our model using an unbalanced panel of 159 countries for the years 1994, 2004, and 2011. We confirm the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between maternity leave duration and female participation, and find a maternity leave threshold of around 30 weeks above which female participation falls. Below this threshold, increasing maternity leave increases female labor force participation because the positive effect due to the reduction of work–time cost of employed mothers strongly dominates the negative wage penalty effect. Beyond this threshold, the opposite happens. Our analysis also confirms the relevance of social norms for female labor supply throughout the world.

在本文中，我们考虑了产假权利对女性劳动力参与的直接和间接影响。我们首先从理论上探讨生育率决定下产假时间对女性劳动力供应的影响。我们假设产假的持续时间通过两个主要渠道影响女性劳动力供应：减少女性从事市场工作的时间成本，以及减少女性的收入。我们的理论模型考虑了休假时间对女性劳动力供应的非单调影响。我们使用1994年，2004年和2011年的159个国家/地区的不平衡面板对模型的预测进行了检验。我们确认了产假持续时间与女性参与度之间存在倒U型关系，找到30周左右的产假门槛，高于此门槛的女性参与率下降。在此阈值以下，增加产假会增加女性劳动力的参与，因为减少工作母亲的工作时间成本所产生的积极影响在很大程度上抵消了负面的工资惩罚效应。超出此阈值，情况正好相反。我们的分析还证实了社会规范与全世界女性劳动力供应的相关性。