82

The 2015 parental leave reform reduced the duration of compensation from three to two years for families giving birth to a second or higher order child, if it is not shared between the parents. Using exhaustive administrative data and a discontinuity regression method, this article highlights the highly heterogeneous effects of this reform according to parental characteristics and local context. Mothers who had to give up a third year of paid parental leave as a result of this reform have specific profiles. These profiles are also very different depending on whether, after the birth, mothers opt for full-time parental leave (stopping working) or part-time parental leave (reducing their number of hours worked). While this reform has not really encouraged fathers to extend their spouse’s parental leave on a full-time basis, some have done so on a part-time basis. These are particularly middle-income fathers, whose wives earn high incomes, are public-sector employees, and have access to childcare.