Why Fathers Don't Take Parental Leave

Despite the increasing availability of paternity leave policies worldwide, uptake remains low, with most fathers taking little or no leave. One potential explanation is that families perceive limited value in fathers spending time at home with their newborns. The paper presented in this ZEW Research Seminar investigates beliefs about the UK's Shared Parental Leave (SPL) policy using a novel survey of a nationally representative sample of childbearing individuals. The authors find that individuals generally assign positive value to fathers taking leave, by reallocating a portion of the mother's leave, across various outcomes related to the well-being of the mother, father, and child. Gender attitudes are strong predictors of the perceived benefits of SPL. They also show that a simple information intervention leads respondents to update their beliefs positively regarding the returns to paternal leave. However, this shift in beliefs does not translate into substantial changes in policy support, willingness to donate, or stated preferences, though they document meaningful heterogeneity across subgroups.