Effect of Cash-Benefit Reform on Immigrants’ Labour Supply and Earnings

This paper evaluates the impact of a recent Norwegian family-policy reform on the labour supply of native and three groups of immigrant women in Norway. The reform provides cash benefits to families with one- to three-year-old children, who do not utilize state-subsidized day-care centres. We find that natives and non-Western immigrants quit the labour market. However, the effect is trivial for natives whereas it is more significant for immigrants. Given participation, earnings of natives and all groups of female immigrants fell after the cash-benefit reform. Specifically, earnings of non-Western immigrants fell by more than those of natives and OECD immigrants.Cash-benefit Reform; Integration policy; Immigrants

Child-Care in Norway: Use of Parental Leave by Fathers

An important feature of parental leave in Norway is that it allows significant sharing of leave between parents. Parents may take 54 weeks of leave and receive 80 per cent of previous earnings or 44 weeks of leave with 100 per cent of earnings, up to a ceiling amount. Nine weeks of total leave are, however, reserved for the mother and six weeks for the father and, as a general rule, these weeks cannot be transferred to the other parent. The remaining parental leave can be shared between parents. A reserved period of leave for fathers, known as the paternity quota, was introduced in 1993. Initially, this quota was four weeks. The paternity quota has been a great success and is utilized by 80–85 per cent of eligible fathers; however, very few fathers share gender-neutral parental leave. In this paper, we use register data to investigate factors that may influence fathers’ share of parental leave for children born in 2001. We find that married fathers use more leave than cohabitants. In addition, fathers’ education, mothers’ income and number of preschool children positively affect fathers’ use of the paternity quota and gender-neutral leave. Fathers’ workplace does not affect the use of the paternity quota but has a significant effect on the use of gender-neutral leave.Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination; Public Policy.

The Impact of a Cash Benefit Reform on Parents’ Labour Force Participation.

This paper evaluates the impact of a recent Norwegian family policy reform. The reform provides benefits of up to NOK 3000 per month to all families with 1-3 year old children, who do not utilise state subsidised day care centres. We investigate the reform’s effect on parents’ labour force participation. Our findings suggest that, on average, women’s labour force participation decreases and specialisation of work between couples increases after the reform. When we evaluate the reform’s impact in association with women’s schooling we find that the decrease in the labour force participation of mothers who have university level schooling is larger as compared with mothers who have less than university schooling.Public policy; Cash benefits; Specialisation

Does paternity leave affect mothers’ sickness absence

Female labour force participation is high in Norway but sickness absence rates are higher for women than for men. This may be partly a result of unequal sharing of childcare in the family. In this paper, we consider the effect of paternity leave on sickness absence among women who have recently given birth. We draw on a six-year panel taken from full population data from administrative sources. We find that in the 6% of families where fathers take out leave more than the standard quota (gender-neutral leave), the incidence of absence among mothers is reduced by about 5–10% from an average level of 20%.Parental leave; paternity quota; gender neutral leave; sickness absence

The effect of critical thinking on making the right decisions in the new venture process

The design of a new venture is similar to the engineering design process. With systematic approaches, it is possible to increase foresight and reduce the complexity of the engineering design process. On the other hand, in new venture design, self-efficacy must be maintained to increase resistance to challenging situations by an entrepreneur. Decision making is compelling and risky in both engineering and new venture design processes. During the logical inferences, psychology, unconscious and environmental impacts will affect the decisions made. However, critical thinking has a significant effect on making the right decisions. Self-efficacy and creative confidence are beneficial in making the right decisions and maintaining new venture design processes. In this paper, a critical thinking approach to engineering product development and design processes, applied by Anlam TasarIm Atölyesi, will be explained. The paper will also seek to answer the question, 'How can the right decisions be made by protecting self-efficacy in the face of criticism?' Additionally, the paper will emphasise the relationship between critical thinking, self-efficacy and creative confidence