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Methodological Challenges in Paid Parental Leave Research and Policy

When:
From:
THU, 22 MAY 2025, 11:30 AM
To:
FRI, 23 MAY 2025, 5:00 PM
Where:
Hybrid
LISER Conference room

1st floor, Maison des Sciences Humaines, 11, Porte des Sciences, L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette/Belval, Luxembourg

Maison des Sciences Humaines
Jane Jacobs Conference Room
Partners:
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LISER's Living Conditions Department is hosting an international workshop on "Methodological Challenges in Paid Parental Leave Research and Policy" as part of the EU COST Action project Sustainability@Leave.

ABOUT THE EVENT

Context
The 2019 EU Directive on Work-Life Balance for Parents and Carers issued a set of legislative actions aimed at supporting work-life balance, encouraging equal sharing of informal care between parents and increasing women’s participation in the labour market. Actions under the directive include continued monitoring of policy outcomes and improved data on leave take-up and use of flexible work arrangements. However, sufficient data for adequate policy evaluation are still out-of-reach.

Aims
This event will bring together renowned international policy experts from government institutions, research centers, and academia, including representatives from the ILO, OECD, European Commission, EIGE, EUROFOUND, EUROSTAT, ESS, ISSP, University College London, University of Stockholm and LISER among others. The workshop aims to develop the data needed for rigorous study of parenting leave policy outcomes. Participants will share the latest progress toward filling data gaps, the challenges of data collection and future policy evaluation.

Programme
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
GREETINGS & REFRESHMENTS
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM
WELCOME

Aline Muller | Director of LISER

Margaret O’Brien | Vice Chair of EU COST-Action Sustainability@Leave & Emeritus Professor of Child and Family Policy, University College London

Cassandra Engeman | Co-leader of the EU COST-Action Working Group on Sustainable Paid Parental Leave Data & Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University

1:00 PM - 1:25 PM
SYNTHESIZING LEAVE TERMINOLOGY

PRESENTATIONS

Chair: Margaret O’Brien


The INLP&R: Mapping and Shaping Leave Terminology since 2005

Alison Koslowski (University College London) & Fred Deven (CBGS, Brussels),

International Network on Leave Policies and Research (the Leave Network)


Leave terminology provided by international organizations: An EU COST-Action report

Anna Escobedo, Associate Professor, University of Barcelona

1:25 PM - 2:30 PM
PANEL DISCUSSION

Chair: Margaret O’Brien

Laura Addati | Care Policy Specialist, International Labour Organization (ILO)

Fred Deven | Co-founder of the Leave Network & Scientific Director of CBGS , Brussels

Anna Escobedo | Associate Professor, University of Barcelona

Alison Koslowski | Pro Provost (Equity & Inclusion), University College London & Co-editor of the Leave Network Annual Review

Alexandre Lloyd | Junior Social Policy Analyst, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Pedro Romero-Balsas | Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Autonomous University Madrid & C o leader of EU COST-Action Working Group on Terminology

2:30 PM - 2:50 PM
BREAK
2:50 PM - 3:45 PM
ADVANCING ADMINISTRATIVE DATA

PRESENTATIONS

Chair: Marie Valentova , Research Scientist, LISER

National level data on leave take-up

Ann-Zofie Duvander, Professor of Demography, Stockholm University & Mid Sweden University Östersund

Monitoring fathers’ engagement in childcare in Poland: Lessons learnt from cooperation of Share the Care foundation and the Social Insurance Institution

Karolina Andrian, Board Member, Share the Care Foundation

Using employer Pay as You Earn (PAYE) data to estimate parental leave take-up

Bryan Halka, UK Dept for Business & Trade, Employment Rights Directorate

Identifying family relationships in register data using auxiliary data sources

Christian Fang, Social Scientist, Statistics Netherlands

Comparable statistics on paid parental leave in the Nordic cooperation

Håkan Nyman, Senior Adviser, Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs & representative of the Nordic Social Statistical Committee (NOSOSCO)

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM
DISCUSSION
Methodological Challenges in Paid Parental Leave Research and Policy

This event will take place on May 22 and 23, 2025, as part of the EU COST Action project Sustainability@Leave (https://sustainable-leave-policies.eu/).

Event organizer:
Cassandra Engeman (Stockholm University), Ásdís Aðalbjörg Arnalds (University of Iceland), Marie Valentova (LISER), Ivana Dobrotić (University of Zagreb), Ann-Zofie Duvander (Stockholm University), Margaret O’Brien (University College London)
cassandra.engeman@sofi.su.se

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