MOST fathers who are not entitled to paternity leave look with envy upon the dads in other countries who get to spend months at home with their child. Others may breathe guilty sighs of relief as they escape each morning to their peaceful offices. But never mind the dads: the intended beneficiaries of paternity leave are the children. What do they get out of it?
A review by the OECD, a club of mainly rich countries, examined longitudinal studies of children born around the turn of the century in America, Australia, Britain and Denmark. Though the four countries enjoy similar standards of living, they take differing views on the value of having both parents around. In Denmark, 99% of the dads in the cohort took at least a week off when their child was born, and 90% took more than two weeks. In America, where fathers have no right to paternity leave, a quarter took less than a week and two-thirds were back at work before their baby was a fortnight old.
Dads were asked whether they helped with basic parenting responsibilities, from reading stories to brushing teeth. No country covered itself in glory: for most of the chores, less than half the dads reported helping. But after controlling for income and education, the researchers found that fathers in all countries who had taken time off work when their child was born were more likely to pitch in than...
from The Economist: International http://ift.tt/1G9FNOw
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