The Effects of Parental Leave Policies on Second Birth Recuperation: A Comparison of the Czech and Slovak populations
Abstrakt
The transition towards childbearing at later ages has made up the key driver of fertility trends in Eastern European countries since the early 1990s. The postponement of first childbirth commenced with an increase in the age of mothers at first birth and resulted in a sharp decline in the TFR to well below the replacement level in most of the region, and particularly in Czechia and Slovakia.
We focused on the postponement of second childbirth as a result of differences in the respective childcare leave systems. The parity-cohort method was used in order to investigate changes in the spacing and quantum of second births among women who had their first child between 1992 and 2012.
Despite similar developments concerning childcare leave systems during the 1990s, Czechia outperformed Slovakia from 2004 due to a significant increase in both the flexibility and the amount of the parental benefit. We discovered that the increase in TFR between 2003 and 2008 coincided with an increase in the second-birth rate during the third year following first delivery together with a decrease in the second-birth rate during the fourth year and later, thus contributing towards the higher rate of recuperation of delayed second births in Czechia.