Preferences Versus Actual Family Policy Measures

Abstract

Attitudes and preferences regarding parental leave and child allowance arrangements are compared with actual schemes. The focus is on the length and mode of taking parental leave, as well as on the dependence of child allowance rates on family income, the age of the child and the number of children. The results have shown a weak correlation between the actual duration of parental leave in different countries and people’s evaluation of its sufficiency, which points to the importance of cultural norms, female employment patterns and equal {opportunities} for understanding people’s attitudes and expectations. No common pattern was found {regarding} the preferred mode of taking parental leave. The prevailing preference is towards child allowance dependent on income but independent of the age of the child. As concerns the dependence of child allowance on the age of the child, preferences strongly correlate with arrangements at the time of the national surveys. In general terms, child allowance as a social assistance policy measure is most commonly preferred, while an allowance which bears prevalent characteristics of a population policy measure is least commonly preferred.